The Taken Up Offer
by Lunamon810
Summary: When eight year old Ellilou Zoldyck gets herself tossed out of the Zoldyck estate, no thanks to her smart mouth, she decides she's going to take the reins and control her own life. But what happens when she encounters her brother at the Hunter Exam? Can she pass the exam without him finding out?
1. Offer X Island X Exam

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. This is a story I've been working on probably a couple of months now. I have a few chapters written, but I'm probably only going to post them ever-so-often, so I can go back and re-read them and stuff before I post them. I'd just like to note, this is kind of rushed right now. That's because the Hunter Exam, for the most part, isn't the main part of the story. So I just wanted to get through it so I could get to the main parts of her story.**

**And I know there is going to probably be a rampage over the fact I made ANOTHER Zoldyck-sister OC. You know what I have to say to that? Come at me.**

**And just in case I screwed up at any part (I don't THINK I did, I tried to read through and check) Ellilou is eight at the very beginning of the story.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER!**

* * *

I was eight years old, standing in front of my father. I knew the entire family was watching, but I didn't care. I clenched my fists, growling. "I won't do it! I'm done, no more assassination missions! I'd rather die homeless on the street than assassinate for you, I'm done taking people's lives! No more!" I shook my white haired head hard, my shoulder blade length hair flinging around then settling back down. My father, Silva Zoldyck, crossed his arms, giving me an _oh_-_so_-disapproving look.

"You would, would you? Why don't we let you then, since that's what you want." I blinked hard. Did that mean what I think it meant? I heard my younger brother Killua gasp as my older brother Illumi picked me up by the back of my neck and carried me to the front door, which was in the room we were in anyways, and threw me out, slamming me onto the concrete steps outside. The door shut, and I glared viciously at it. I stood up and stomped away, glad to finally be free of that prison.

"You'll see... I'll make it. And I won't have to kill _anyone_." I said, passing the butler's quarters, and Kanary. I even passed Mike. I didn't care. I slammed the two doors to the gates I could open open, and never looked back. I headed down the hill by foot, not slipping on the muddy ground from where it had just rained. I wasn't going back. Ever.

I made it to civilization below, but that wasn't enough. Using my quiet, quick assassin skills, I snuck onto a boat. I snuck food into a vacant room, after picking it's lock. Nobody ever saw me, and I soon escaped onto a place called Whale Island. There I was found by a lady named Mito, or her nephew rather, He was seven, like Killua was. He found me on the dirt path, where I was just walking. He kept asking questions about how he hadn't seen me, asking who I was. Eventually I told him I had no family, and had ended up here by accident. So he then dragged me to his house, and told his Aunt Mito. Ever since, I lived with them.

When Mito told me what Gon was planning to do, I became the defensive older sister I am. Even though Gon technically wasn't my brother. "If he's going, I am too. Come on, you already said it yourself, you don't want him getting hurt. So I'll go with him." I had already lived with them for a while, and I'd watched Gon catch the big swamp fish that she'd required for him to go to a place called the Hunter Exam.

Aunt Mito sighed. "That was never part of the agreement Gon and I made. But I guess you're right, I'll feel better if Gon has someone with him. And legally I can't keep you, I have no rights to you." I grinned and high-fived Gon, and we headed off.

* * *

A lot of stuff happened between me and Gon getting to the Hunter Exam, but I won't bore you with those details, there are plenty of other places you can find what happened. You're here to read my story, and that doesn't get too good until we got to the Exam. So that's where we'll continue from here on. Got it? Good. Because I honestly don't want you breathing down my throat for details already told; they don't change now that you know I'm here.

#406. That was me. We entered the tunnel, it was pretty dark. Some guy named Tompa started offering advice and such, and I pretty much ignored him, and the Nicholas guy that taunted him. I was too busy looking at the other applicants to worry about those two, they posed no threat. I was getting a bad feeling from some other applicants though, such as one in a joker costume, and one with pins in his head. Something was eerie about that guy. And I felt like a stone had formed and grown in my stomach when I saw #99. It was unmistakable, the messy white hair the same color as my own mid-back length hair, which wasn't quite as messy, but still was. I had the black-brown eyes most of us Zoldycks had too.

So Killua and I's paths crossed again. I knew it, but did he? I had to make sure he didn't. I moved behind Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika, the two who'd joined us on our way. I hardly paid attention to them. I knew Leorio was a loud idiot On our way, there were a bunch of people repeating something like 'bu-bum' or something, I don't remember. There was an old lady, and we had to answer her question, giving the same answer. We were asked who we would save if our mother and our true love were captured by kidnappers, if we could only save one. I remained silent, not trusting the question. How would I answer that anyway? Leorio, however, blurted out a bunch of crap. Eventually someone got him to understand, and we moved ahead.

I really hoped none of this exam would depend on him making decisions for us.

Soon we started running, and running. And running. Killua skateboarded, and soon skateboarded past us. Leorio started ranting at him, and I had to admit I agreed. "Killu- I mean I'm gonna kill you you little, how come you can just ride that thing when-" Kurapika interrupted us and pointed out we were allowed to bring whatever we wanted. Killua got off his skateboard and kept going, but kept eying me. I was pretty mad at myself for slipping up, and I think I had already made him suspicious. Not that looking so much like I belonged from our family helped.

We ran for a long time, and soon enough Leorio started collapsing. So Tompa dragged him off somewhere, and surprise surprise he deceived us. Killua came in to save the day, and helped me up when we got through the final blast of bombs he threw at the walls to return to the normal group, Leorio back to normal after hallucinating from some sap on the walls, which Kurapika had also fell victim too. Both were fine though.

"You alright, Celeste? You seem pretty out of it." Before you ask, not that is not my real name. I couldn't just tell them my real name though, could I? I looked at Gon and nodded.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine, look at your arm," Leorio pointed out, and so I did. A good bit of skin was missing, it bleeding heavily. I shrugged, and his eyes widened. "How can you just shrug that off!? You're losing blood too fast, you're gonna pass out soon!"

"Celeste has always been pretty good at shrugging off pain," Gon explained. "But Leorio's right, We should get that patched up soon." Leorio pulled some medical bandages out of his suitcase, still running. He tossed them to me, after a bit of arguing with him that I could do it myself, along with some stuff to clean it with. After cleaning it I tossed the trash to the side and the remainder of the stuff to Leorio, then wrapped it up with my unhurt hand. I threw the roll of bandages at Leorio, then sped back up, since we were just slightly behind the rest of the applicants now.

"Hmph. Ungrateful little..."

"Thanks, Leorio." I said sighing. Sue me man, for the first eight years of my life I was taught nothing of manners, just training and assassination. Mito had tried, but she wasn't getting very far. We still ran for quite a while, but thank all that is good there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And the light led to confusion, of course. Because some guy came in and told us Satotz, the examiner we'd followed this whole time, for the most part anyways, was a fake examiner. And that he was the real one.

What a liar. His heartbeat totally gave him away.

The guy in the joker suit, who Tompa had told us was named Hisoka, one of the few bits of information I paid attention to, threw cards at either 'examiner'. Satotz caught the card, the other guy was killed by them. Idiot, it was such a simple attack, how could he not dodge it? Hisoka pointed this out, and was congratulated, but told another attack to an examiner would earn him a one way ticket out the door, until next year of course. We went running through the swamps, and the fog got thick. I stuck with Gon, and unfortunately Killua. I didn't quite catch the memo when Gon turned back, and kept going.

Eventually everyone made it to the site of the second phase, which was good, I guess. Could have gone without Killua being there though. We waited for a while, then eventually some girl and some really big guy told us to catch this boar-thing and kill it, so the big guy could eat it. So we each did. I easily killed it, and it's weight was no problem for me to drag back, though the fact I could do it so easily on my own seemed to be a problem for Gon and Leorio. I told them mine must not have eaten in a while and moved on.

So then we were told to make sushi. I knew what it was, knew how it tasted, but I had absolutely no clue how to make it. So of course I failed, even after baldy blurted out what it was and such. Good news was, so did everyone else, and we were all going to fail until the chairman guy stepped in and fixed the situation. I walked on the thin thread-like things we had to to get the eggs we need, then cooked it easily alongside forty-one other people. I passed, and ate my egg. Not too bad I guess.

Then we were on an airship, and we had until eight am the next morning of free time. So I stuck with Gon and once again Killua. Damn, would I ever get rid of him? We went exploring the airship, though Kurapika and Leorio stayed behind from exhaustion. As we were headed towards the cockpit, Killua and I stopped, one right after the other. I was a few feet ahead of him, but we both looked over our shoulder almost at the exact same time. We both dismissed it when Gon asked if something was wrong, but I waited a second before running after them. We're being watched. You idiot, we should have taken care of it. Whoever it is could become an annoyance.

Killua and I apparently had the same attitude towards the sign on the door that said 'Do Not Enter', though Gon didn't seem to like just walking in like we did. I think all three of us were amazed by the controls and such though. Apparently the guy steering thought we were part of the staff, and he asked for coffee, though my butt-head of a brother replied smartly, telling him to get his own coffee, unless he let him steer the ship. Which of course got us thrown out like yesterday's trash. Killua yelled at the guy from the outside, and Gon mentioned how he hated getting in trouble. So we decided to go somewhere else.

And by somewhere else of course I mean everywhere else. Down to where they had some vehicles, some storage rooms, some bathroom that smelt like the fat guy had emptied the boars back into the world in. We ran along the hallways, not really caring who caught us. Well, at least me and Killua didn't. Most people just lounged around the airship though, and we eventually sat down on a bench, around other exhausted people, though I wasn't quite feeling it.

Gon seemed a little shocked when Killua said nothing we found seemed cool to him, and I guess I was too. I guess when you quit being a Zoldyck, you quit seeing the exciting things they do. Wouldn't go back for all the excitement in the world though.

Then Gon was amazed by the view from the airship. When Killua questioned Gon about not seeing the world below from the air before, I already knew the answer. No, he'd never left Whale Island. Or the ground, unless you count trees and crap like that, or the foxbear's back.

"What about you, Celeste?" Gon asked looking at me. I looked at him, having forgotten for a second Gon still had no clue about what happened before he found me besides the bits and pieces of lies I'd had told him, only because I had to.

"Meh, once or twice." I said, and he gave up, knowing I wouldn't give him any more information than that. Killua responded saying his family owned private jets, so he'd seen it plenty of times. He talked about the mountain we lived on, or they did. And how they had about two hundred servants. When Gon asked about what his parents did, he told them the truth. They're assassins. Not were. Are. And I was fully aware of this, and that's why I lived on Whale Island with Gon ever since I was eight.

Killua laughed when Gon reacted so surprised, saying no one else had taken him seriously. When Gon said he believed Killua, that he could just feel it, Killua admitted most people didn't know when he was telling the truth. Which I knew, because he was good at disguising his heartbeat. I sighed and pretended I wasn't listening. "Every member of my family is a professional assassin. Pay them enough and they'll kill anyone you want." I closed my eyes. So even he didn't consider me family anymore, and we used to have an alright relationship. "They all look at me as if I'm some kind of exceptional prospect. My whole life up until this point has been all about preparing to enter the family business, but I don't see that I have to live up to their expectations, you know? My sister didn't either, and she got kicked out because of it. I had to go a different route, so they didn't do the same to me. She pretty much invited them to."

I felt tears entering my eyes, so I closed them more shut than I already had them. So he thought I deserved it then. "And when I told them I was going to decide my own future, my parents and brothers totally freaked out on me! You should have seen it, my mom actually had tears in her eyes as she was trying to convince me I was going to be a great assassin one day. They're the worst! Who wouldn't wanna get out of there." I sighed.

"I know I would. Your sister may have gotten thrown out, but by the sounds of it, and what I've heard about how assassins are trained, your sister got the better deal." I said , laying my forearms on the windowsill, not looking at either of them as I opened my tearless eyes.

"She's probably dead. She was only eight, and she was too stubborn, probably wouldn't even accept someone's help." I shrugged before he continued with his story. "So eventually we got into a big fight. I slashed my mom in the face, stabbed my older brother, and ran away. I bet they're scouring the country looking for me. But if they find me, I'll have to finish the job I started! I can't wait to get my hunter's license. I'm gonna hunt them down to the last one. And once I collect the bounties on their heads, I'm gonna be set for life!"

"What about your sister? Did they look for her? When you go on your little assassination spree, are you going to?"

Killua twitched for a second, and I realized I used one of my previously common phrases, 'assassination spree'. He brushed it off though. "They did. Now anyone who finds her gets twenty billion jenny. But if she's dead, I doubt they'll pay that. And my mom had to convince my dad to let her put that much up, he's the one who had my older brother toss her out. And I'm not sure. If I do, I probably won't kill_ her_. There's no bounty for her dead. No one really knows about her."

Gon apparently hadn't paid the slightest bit of attention to our conversation. "Killua, you're amazing."

"Huh?"

"I said you're amazing. I'm doing all this to find my dad but I never even thought of trying to be a better hunter than he is."

Something in Killua's expression changed a little bit. "I suppose you're right. I guess I never really thought about what it means to capture my own dad."

"You'll get yourself killed, stupid..." I mumbled under my breath, though if either of the other two noticed, they didn't respond.

"You can do it!" Gon reassured. "I know you can!"

"Oh yeah? Well that's easy for you to say, you don't know anything at all about my dad, now do you?" He sounded mad now, and I sighed, wishing he wouldn't get so mad, since he was being an idiot a minute ago and talking just like Gon was.

"Well I know you, and he's your dad right? So I sort of feel like I know him."

"Is that your answer for everything? Saying you sort of feel something won't cut it in the real world."

"Leave him alone Killua. You don't know that. Some people sort of feel something and are right, and make a job out of it. Gamblers. Fortune tellers. It's a different kind of feeling then his right now, but who knows how it'll devel-" I stopped at the same time Killua stood up and started running in the same direction.

"Killua! Celeste!" Gon called. I was next to him as he stopped, and pulled something off the plant.

_Damn it. She got away again. Or at least I think it's a she, it's a feminine walk and breath._

"Are you guys okay?" Gon asked, coming up behind us. We smiled and turned to him.

"It's nothing." We said in unison, and we looked at each other for a second, realizing it. Then Killua shrugged it off and looked at Gon again, smiling.

"Come on, lets get something to drink, okay?" He turned to walk away. I stood, not sure if he wanted me to come or not, also not sure if I wanted to. He turned to look at me. "Come on, you too E- Celeste." I paused for a second, blinking at what he started to call me. "Sorry, you remind me of my sister, Ellilou. The one who got thrown out. She looked a lot like you, and had the same attitude."

I narrowed my eyes, then nodded. "It's alright. I think I like your sister, by the sounds of it." I said, walking past him. And I meant it. I liked who I was after I left the estate. When we made it to the cafe and got something to drink, I could tell Killua kept looking at what he took off the plant under the table, but ignored it. I realized this could have something to do with the family on the way to the cafe, realizing the anger that was in the heartbeat. I wanted nothing to do with them, and whoever it was didn't know about me. Or shouldn't. No one knew about me yet, before I left.

Killua told Gon he wasn't acting weird, and in my opinion he wasn't. He was being observant like he'd been trained to. His response to Gon's innocent question was cold, and worried him, but I sighed and looked at Gon with a look that said 'don't worry about it, he'll get over it.'

A girl came over, black pigtails, blue eyes. "You mind if I sit here?" I immediately sat up, much more alert. Her heartbeat. It was one of a liars, something being hidden. Something relevant to us. I think Killua noticed it too. Gon was nice to her though, and I couldn't object without reason. So of course she sat with us. Her named turned out to be Anita, and I only paid attention for our safety, mind you.

"My name's Gon, this is Celeste, and this is Killua." He looked at Killua, who was looking at no one. The girl offered information as to why she was here, apparently she wanted to be a blacklist hunter. _The only thing you're going to be is dead if you try to hurt my brother,_ I thought. Then I stopped myself. I didn't mean Killua would kill her. I meant I would, no matter how much I tried to convince myself I didn't. Why did I care so much? He abandoned me too, after all. She told us she wanted revenge against who killed her father. He was apparently a businessman, in spice trade.

Gon looked at me. "Was that what your parents were business people for, Celeste?" I shrugged, focusing on something too much to answer. I sat to the right of the girl, closer to Killua. I looked at the thing in his hand, then at the girl's earring. They matched. I looked away from everyone too now. "Sorry," Gon apologized, and I absentmindedly shrugged. She continued to talk about her father, but I was paying more attention to her heartbeat, which I knew would alert me a few seconds before she attacked, she hadn't trained her heartbeat, probably didn't know how.

She then brought up that at the height of her father's success, a competitor to him got jealous, and hired a professional assassin. She didn't even have to research, it was the Zoldycks who killed her father. Gon finally put it together, and Killua smiled, different than a happy smile, and looked over. Then Leorio started hitting on her. Go figure. Idiot. I had to give the girl props, she rejected him as coldly as the cheap bastard deserved. Kurapika admitted he was in the same boat as her, and Killua admitted she was here for him.

She reached for her weapon and froze. Killua was the idiot I expected he was and brought up if someone was assassinated, they probably did something to deserve it. The girl started slicing at him, and I eventually stepped in his way, but the chairman stopped them both dead. Killua voiced his dismay. The girl was panting, and the chairman said normally a fight between the two wouldn't have mattered, had the girl passed the previous phase. She was walked away in handcuffs.

"So why'd you step in my way, Celeste? There was no way you could have beaten her. Why did you care?"

I took a deep breath and started walking away. "Don't underestimate me, Zoldyck." I spat my previous last name like it was poison, and didn't bother to answer the second question. I didn't interact with them for the rest of the night, to mad at myself to care, and some part of me wished Killua would try to confront me. I almost wanted my secret to be out. But I heard those two tried to help her with a game somehow, but I didn't care. I wanted to avoid them for the rest of the exam, though I knew at least Gon wouldn't let that happen.

When I said my last name, I spat it out as easily as I could have any other poison. And I could only do that thanks to my worthless family. And they wanted me back? Fat chance. I wasn't ever going back. The first eight years of my life, all I remembered was the pain and torture. Hanging in chains, wishing my heart would give out to the electricity, or I could lose enough blood to pass out from the whippings. Wishing I could stop screaming so they would stop. But they never did, even once I finally did close my mouth.

* * *

**So that was fun. Except not. But anyways, hope you enjoyed it/didn't hate it with every essence of your being and uh... Thanks for reading. I'll try to read through the second chapter soon and get it up.**


	2. Tower X Illumi X Pokkle

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. I was going to let this sit for a couple of days before I posted the second chapter, but somebody *cough*Bushwah*cough* wasn't going to let that happen. So here, have the second chapter. It's nice. Kind of. Anyways, I don't have much to say 'cause it's 11:13 at night and I'm anti-social now (minus a few people) so uh... Yeah. Have a chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER. STILL.**

* * *

I never asked the outcome of the game. When we made it to our destination, I avoided them on my way off. We were explained the rules, make it to the bottom of the tower in the time given, seventy-two hours. That never meant anything good. Immediately our time started, the third phase. I was glad to get on track. I stared at the blank wall. These creatures came and devoured the guy who climbed down, so I took that option off my list.

Kurapika suggest we spread out, and when he looked at me I knew he meant me too. So I was included in the group again. Great. At some point everyone started falling in. I accidently stepped where Tompa did, and when it started sinking in I instantly kicked the fat bastard out the way. He wasn't following me anywhere. Finally I escaped everyone. The lights flickered on. Or not. There they all were. We read a sign, basically we were voting our way through it. Majority rules. The five of us put the watch-timer-things on.

First vote. O door open, X door closed. We all hit O. Killua and Gon kept looking at me. Stupid boys. I didn't care what their thoughts were. I just wanted this over with. Next choice. O go right, X go left. We ended up going right. Leorio objected, saying to go left. But we all went right anyway, and Kurapika pointed out that it was true. Eventually I got tired of Leorio's complaining. "Listen, Layo. Since it's such a well known fact people usually go left, the examiners are likely to know it too. Which means they probably made that path harder."

Leorio pointed out Gon made the same mistake. God, I hoped Layo's stupidity wasn't contagious. For a while we all kept walking in silence. We reached some arena, with a gap between where we stood, the middle, and the other side. Where five people in grey clothes stood, their hands cuffed together in front of them, hoods covering their heads. They came off of one guy, who threw his cloak off almost immediately, to reveal a almost grotesquely muscled body with a bald head. The man said they were pretty much examiners, and each one of us would fight one of them. The matches could vary from physical to mental, puzzles, whatever.

When Leorio complained that he wanted to go left, Kurapika didn't fail to point out the other path could have been worse. We could go against whoever in whatever order we pleased, and since majority is apparently all we needed to get 3 out of five wins at least to pass. Fighting was also not limited to battle. No draws, and the winner had to have their opponent admit defeat. O we accept, X we didn't. Leorio complained about the amount of questions. What did he think 'Majority Rules' meant?

I cleared my throat. "I'll go first."

"No, let me go first Celeste." I shook my head, looking at Gon.

"I promised Mito I was keeping you safe. Let me be the guinea pig. We'll get the gist of how this goes, and you guys can get a better grasp. I like going in blind. Makes it more fun."

"But Celeste, this guy looks like he relies on physical strength. You wouldn't stand a chance." Kurapika pointed out, and I growled.

"Don't underestimate me, damn it! I'm getting sick of it. Let me prove myself, don't count me short!" He sighed and nodded, and the other three followed suit. I walked across the bridge over to the guy.

"Heh, so they let the little girl go first, huh? Filthy, though I guess I can't blame them. Wanna get the worst over with. Well sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going to be playing hopscotch. One-on-one match. I'd say to death, but I don't feel like killing someone who has no chance. There's no thrill there. Until you give in, then I'll stop."

"Fine. Until _someone_ gives in, we keep going." He nodded. "I accept your challenge then. Idiot."

"Well then, lets fight!" He ran at me, but I was out of his way way before that. I rammed my leg into his back, and instantly twisted his arm back, a resounding pop coming from it almost immediately. He didn't give in though. Something inside of me made me kept twisting his arm, the noises of the muscle tearing and bone shattering unaffecting. I didn't hear him when he admitted defeat. It took Gon to snap me out of it.

"Celeste, stop it! He admitted defeat, you won, let him go!" I stopped, realizing it. I got off him, and immediately backed away from his arm. My heart pounded. What possessed me? _You're not done, are you? Are you seriously going to let him get free?_ I heard a voice say. My eyes widened. I knew that voice. I'd fought it away in my nightmares every night for years._** Illumi.**_

He'd said similar to me when a kid on the street made me mad. I'd done the same thing to him, except his arm was completely torn off. I told Illumi I wouldn't finish the job, he could still live. Illumi followed seven year old me as I continued on my way home, continuously asking why I didn't want to finish the kid off. I finally responded. _"I'm not heartless like you guys! I can't do it!_" I ran the rest of the way home that day.

"Celeste! Come on! Time is wasting!" Leorio yelled, and I snapped out of it.

"Sorry man. Didn't hear you... Go lost in my own world. Maybe they can salvage your arm. Or learn to live without it. Guess that'll teach you not to underestimate someone, huh?" I said, though my voice was weaker. I walked back across the bridge, past the others, and laid my head against the wall in the corner. Gon went next, and I watched as he won, playing tricks just like the guy had. Killua watched me, but I wouldn't meet his eyes.

Though I saw Kurapika's. Red. I'd just barely caught a glimpse of them, but they were scarlet red. The blue hideously morphed guy showed him a tattoo on his back, a twelve legged spider. I knew that was a symbol of a gang called the Phantom Troupe, and I knew those guys were bad business. I only knew because the Zoldycks preached not to fight them, that they were stronger than us. But recalling from memory, something wasn't right about the tattoo. Or Kurapika. His eyes turned red when he saw it. I didn't see them change personally, but I knew they changed when the air about him did. He knocked the guy unconscious, and we waited for him to wake up. I could tell he was faking, but I was too lost in memories to care.

Eventually Leorio questioned it, and gambled time to check. He had been awake, and admitted defeat. Leorio went next, and gambled more time. Whether the lady who challenged him was a man or a woman. Of course the perverted idiot bet what he wished wasn't true, since he got to 'double check' if she was lying or not. I sighed and stared at the floor in shame for knowing Leorio as he did such. When he was done, it was over. Then rock paper scissors lost us all of our time. Thanks Leorio.

Killua showed his true colors, and ripped out his guy's heart. The guy was some famous guy, Joanass the Dissector or something. I honestly didn't care. I knew what was coming, and was unaffected. Then we went to spend the fifty hours Leorio lost for us in a room.

I really wish they'd leave me alone.

I tried to stay to myself, but eventually Kurapika sat down next to me. "That was impressive out there. I never thought you to be the type to twist someone's arm off."

"It didn't come off. You guys stopped me before that."

"Tell me something. Gon doesn't know, does he?" I looked at him.

"Doesn't know what?" I asked cautiously.

"You're Killua's sister, aren't you?" I looked away.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. If you mean our appearance, it's just a stupid coincidence. There are plenty of people out there with blonde hair and blue eyes, but you don't see me calling you brother and sister, do you? Not so many people with red eyes though, Kurapika. Care to explain?"

"I think you have enough explanation of that, Celeste. And that's not all I mean. You two looked the same out there, when you were fighting. Completely different then before, a whole new world. As if the rules of life changed."

"They do when you're in a fight like that. You don't want to look weak, do you? I'm telling you, I have no relation to Killua whatsoever."

"I don't believe you," Kurapika said, shaking his head. "Care to tell me where you came from before you were found by Gon then?"

"I was lost by my traveling parents when they stopped at Whale Island. I didn't know where they were going, and they never came back looking for me. It's as simple as that, now stop butting in my business." I said, hugging my knees tighter, refusing to look at him.

"It's okay you know. If you are Killua's sister, I won't tell anyone. There has to be a good reason you haven't been with him, and there has to be a good reason he doesn't know it's you. Whether it's he never knew about you, or you hate him. I don't know, and I don't want to push you to tell me that much. I just want to know, I am your friend after all."

I sighed. We sat in silence for a few minutes. "You win. When I was eight, I objected to assassinating. I was done with the torture they put me through, _**us through****.**_ I told them I'd rather live on the streets than live with them. So, they took me up on it, and threw me out. Hoping I'd die like I said in my metaphor. They apparently have an award out for me though, as Killua has blindly said. I don't want Killua to know, I don't want him to know that information. If he doesn't tell them and someone finds out, my parents could get mad and easily torture him as punishment. Even though he's been through a lot of endurance training, it means he can endure it. It doesn't mean it's not still torture. And I don't know what kind of person he is now, he could easily turn me in for the money and glory from our parents. Then what do I do? Go through the torture? Hell no. I never want to face that again."

Kurapika nodded understandingly. "I promise, I won't tell anyone. Not Killua, not Gon, Leorio. Anyone. This will stay between you and me. Thank you for telling me so much." I nodded, then got up and curled up in one of the chairs and went to sleep, skillfully ignoring the noise around me.

_"You did very well out there, El. I'm proud of you. If only you'd stuck around, you could have done better. Why don't you come back? You can still learn. Then you can make money off of it, it'd be so easy. What else are you going to do? Be poor with that child Gon?" I turned around in my sleep, looking into the emotionless eyes of my older brother, Illumi._

_"Leave me alone Illumi. This is my life, my war to fight."_

_"War? What war?"_

_"You know what war. Killua. Him not knowing it's me. I have no idea if I should tell him or not. Until I find concrete proof I should, he won't know. So leave me alone. My war, my choices, my life."_

_"You must be brave to talk to your older brother that way."_

_"You''ll never scare me." I hissed. Then mumbled under my breath. "You're not my brother... At least... I don't see you as my brother."_

_"Oh yeah? I suppose we'll have to fix that." He started walking towards me with his pins, and I backed up. Straight into a wall. Just as he went to drive the pins into my skin, everything flashed away._

Taking it's place was the ceiling of the room I fell asleep in. And taking the place of Illumi's voice was my own. "Killua!" Killua looked over at me, obviously caught off guard. I panted, and looked over at him. "Sorry, I have no idea what that was. Nightmares are so unpredictable."

"Nightmares?" Gon asked, frowning. He walked away from Killua and stood next to me, his arms crossed. He spoke quietly. "You're having nightmares again?"

I sighed. "Gon I've told you before, they never stopped. I'm just getting used to them."

"Then why did you call Killua's name?"

"It involved him this time, I don't know. Let it go."

"Hey, there's food here." Kurapika said, obviously noticing I needed an escape route. We all circled around the table, where food now sat, and gratefully started eating. I went back to sleep, plagued by changing nightmare after changing nightmare of Illumi. Each time I woke up I gained more willpower to make no noise. I eventually stopped, and no one noticed when I woke up, besides Killua one time. He walked over to me, the only other person awake.

"What are your nightmares about?" He asked, sitting down next to my chair.

"Nothing important. Just some guy trying to talk me into going somewhere with him. I'm not sure why, but I'm always afraid of the guy, despite what I say to him."

"Where does he want you to go?"

"I'm not sure. I just know the place would be pure hell for me." It wasn't such a lie. Who knew how much the estate could have changed by now. If I was forced to go back, which would have to be how it was done, I wouldn't know what to expect now.

"Huh. Well, I won't let them take you anywhere. Like I told you before, you remind me of my older sister. Her name was Elillou. I liked her. But she stood up to my parents, and told them she'd rather die on the streets than be there, so they had my older brother Illumi throw her out. I never saw her again. Some part of me tells me she was strong enough to make it... But some part of me doubts it."

I sighed. "I'm sure she's out there somewhere. Maybe instead of risking your life as soon as you get your license, you should look for her. Maybe she'd even help you kill your parents and brothers. That would be great, wouldn't it? I'm sure she has malice towards them."

"Maybe. But she didn't like killing, and I don't know that just because she hates them that means she'll kill them. But maybe I will go find her, and see what she thinks."

"I bet she'll be excited when you find her."

"If I find her."

"You will. Dead or alive." I said, before laying my head back down as he headed back to where he'd been sleeping. Then I realized what he said. "_I won't let them take you anywhere._" Damn it, I'm the older sister- er. Friend. I'm the one whose supposed to protect you.

* * *

I couldn't wait to get out of that room. When the door open, I was out. Choices. Choices. And we were running form a boulder. Killua was skateboarding. Leorio said he hated us. Good. When we were crawling Gon accidently pulled his hand up too far, and water came down and soaked Leorio. I found myself laughing as I continued on. We were crawling along some wall space, when Gon slipped and landed on top of me. I started sliding down and Killua had to hold us up. I sighed. "Hold on tight Gon." He nodded, and I crawled up. "Sorry Killua." I made sure Gon was stable on his own again before I continued on.

I really hoped we were going down.

We went through the door, Gon accidently hit the wrong button though, much to Leorio's irritation. "We're never gonna make it out of here at this rate!"

"Stop complaining, Layo. You're the one who lost us fifty hours." I said, walking past them to the new door. We were told we were at the last door, one final vote. The door with O was a long difficult path for all of us. X was a short easy one for three. The majority picks X, two of us would have to be chained to the wall before that door would open. The path behind O would take roughly fourty-five hours, the X three minutes. I swallowed hard. We barely had an hour. And there were weapons all around. This wouldn't end well.

Leorio admitted he was choosing the X door, and that he would fight for his spot in the three. Gon said he was pressing the O, that we should stick together. Killua pointed out we had to take the shorter path, or no one would make it. And that we would have to fight each other, unless two people willingly stayed behind. I bowed my head. I would go if Gon did. I had to make sure of it. I promised Mito. I started scanning the weapons, trying to figure out which one I would use best.

Gon wasn't having it. "Celeste, stop looking at those weapons. None of us are fighting, we'll figure out a way to get us all down there safely. I promise."

"I'm just being cautious Gon. I'm not going to be the one caught off guard if Killua uses his assassin speed to attack us, or if Kurapika decides he wants to move on. Layo doesn't pose much of a threat though." I said shrugging, and Leorio growled.

"I'll show you-"

"No you won't! We're not fighting!" Gon protested. We were down to less that forty five minutes, and once again Leorio pointed out we had no choice but to press X. Gon still protested. To him, this wasn't a life or death choice.

"This isn't getting us anywhere..." I mumbled under my breath. Killua nodded.

"That's enough! Both of you stop arguing right now! Our time is ticking away! This is a path of majority rules, remember?" Kurapika interrupted. "Whichever door the most of us will have to be the one we go with."

"What if we end up having to have two of us chained up, then what? Leorio obviously isn't afraid to fight, and neither am I. I'm telling you guys right now, if Gon is one of the three who continue on, then so am I. If he's chained to the wall, I'm with him too. The only reason I'm here is to be with Gon and make sure he doesn't get hurt, and I can't do that if I fail and he passes or vice versa." They all looked at me, and I crossed my arms. "I'm telling you right now I have more fighting experience than you think. And I won't be letting Gon get hurt in a fight either. So you can count him being stuck here unless he chooses to stay out."

I could tell by the looks on their faces they didn't expect that to come from me. And they were probably thinking of the guy I faced in the arena a few days ago. Kurapika accepted having to fight if he had to.

Leorio laughed and looked at me. "Oh come on. You honestly think she's going to hurt one of us? She's just talking big, because she managed to hurt that guy back there on a fluke." In less than a second I had one of the axes off the wall and him pinned to a weaponless spot on another wall with the blade at his throat.

"You sure of that, Leorio? Because I wouldn't be."

"Celeste!" Gon said, grabbing the axe and pulling, but I didn't release it, I was much stronger than him. "Let go! No one is hurting anybody!"

"I'm about sick of being underestimated around here. Is it because I'm a girl? Let me go ahead and tell you, where I come from, girls can be just as much feared as boys. I'm sure Killua knows that, his mother is a professional assassin too, and she's just as much feared as the rest of of them. So don't count me out because of my gender. I think I've already proved you I can do just as much damage as any of you, if not more. Got that?" I said, and after a second of silence I ripped the axe from Gon's grip and slammed it into the floor, which almost shattered under it for a small radius around it.

Gon had an idea, so we all pressed O. The door opened. I hated this, everything we'd been through for nothing. Gon took the axe I'd had with him, and started smashing at the wall. We all followed suit. Gon and Kurapika hacked at the wall for a little while, then me and Killua. Soon the wall broke in. We cheered, then realized we had less than three minutes. So we ended up using Killua's skateboard and Gon's fishing rod to get to the bottom, ultimately wearing down the wheels of his skateboard and irritating him. We made it just in time.

Our hands were covered in blisters, but oh well. Gon explained how he got the idea, but I ignored them. I decided unless I had to help Gon, I wanted nothing to do with the group. I was starting to show my true colors, and we couldn't have that. I looked at them and slowly walked away, eyeing the boy with the arrows. I walked over to him. "Those arrows. Did you make them? They don't look store bought." The boy looked at me and nodded. "Can I see one? I promise I'll give it back." He nodded, and I examined it closely. "It nicely made, good job." I nodded and handed it to him.

The boy's name was Pokkle, which I learned after a while. I stuck with him, preferring him over the others. We got on the airship, and I didn't give the others a second glance. Apparently at the next place we stopped, the lady and man running the hotel explained stuff about it, how the boat had been converted to a hotel. Apparently we had three days until the fourth phase, and were going to be relaxing on the island. Or not.

"Finally, we need some relaxation. Though I don't believe it." I said to Pokkle. And I was right. It took ten million jenny per person. No one had that money, of course, hardly anyone in the world did. It was burning hot, and we had no source of fresh water. I sighed. I looked at Pokkle. They offered an alternative method of payment. Trade. We nodded and headed off to find treasure in some of those sunken ships. It was our only chance. All of the other applicants got the hint, but with my help we were faster and disappeared from sight before anyone knew where we went. The man and lady had an antique shop, and would let us put anything we found towards our room. So let the hunt for shiny things begin.


	3. Ship X Drowning X Worth Saving

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. With my next chapter of The Taken Up Offer, because you guys seem to be enjoying it. I'm really glad you guys are accepting it so well, I was honestly nervous with it since people don't typically like Zoldyck sibling OC's; especially girls/sisters. But you guys seem to be alright with it, so I'll keep going. (I would have anyways, but I may have rage quit on posting it.) So thanks, for giving my fanfic a shot. Hope you enjoy the up-coming chapters~**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

We kept looking. I found some nice looking old vases full of jewelry. "Well, I guess I've still got it." I said looking at Pokkle. "Used to have to look for stuff for mom and dad." We kept looking, because who knew where we would end up. Gon and Killua I could see were getting tons of treasure. I didn't care, Pokkle and I were doing fine on our own. But of course when it came time to get our stuff checked, Pokkle wouldn't accept my help, and only gave them his half completed set of plates he found for a second class cabin. I managed to get a first class easily, and crossed my arms disapprovingly at Pokkle. "You should have let me help you, now who knows what lunatics we're gonna end up with as room mates." Pokkle shrugged.

"It wouldn't have been right, it probably would have handicapped what type of room you got if we split it between the two of us." Gon and Kil got second class too, I could hear them. I stuck with Pokkle, in no hurry to go find my new room mate. Kurapika found something of the Kurta clan's, and he said he wasn't going to trade it, but instead wanted to know when the ship sunk. The man didn't know, unfortunately. I felt bad for Kurapika, because I got the feeling that was important to him. He got a room key anyways. I heard Honzo yelling at the man who ran the hotel, and Leorio apparently traded rooms with him.

I ended up sharing a room with Gittarackur, the pin-head guy. And since there were three beds, there was Hisoka. Of course. I eyed both of them, completely untrusting. "Geniuses. Put the thirteen year old girl in the room with the two old guys, the pedo-clown and the guy with pins in his head. I am surrounded by stupidity." I said sighing, leaning against the wall.

"Oh come on now, it's not that bad~" Hisoka said, and I glared.

"Easy for you to say. This is probably your dream come true you pervert."

"I'm not interested in you." He said simply, continuing to build his card tower. I looked at Gittarackur. "And I wouldn't worry about him, he's pretty calm." Gittarackur's jaw moved, clacking. He pulled the pins out of that basic area, though his skin moved a bit, not too much of a difference.

"I wouldn't call me that, Hisoka. But he's right, I have no intention of hurting you." Something about his voice made me pause for a second. It sounded altered a little bit, but something about it was familiar.

"Whatever. I wouldn't try anything if I were you anyways. Just because I'm younger, and a girl mind you idiots, doesn't mean I can't kick both of your asses and still get plenty of sleep. Got that?" The two nodded, though I could tell they didn't feel very threatened. I sighed and looked down at my clothes. My usual black t-shirt with white stripes down either side and grey knee length shorts had dirt and grime all over them, not to mention my black and white mid-calf boots. I looked at the other two. "I'm going to take a bath. If I see so much as a single flake of skin of yours in there, I swear I'll break every limb on your body." I said, picking up my backpack and leaving before they could respond.

I took a bath, soaking away the dirt and grime. I changed into a fresh replica of my previous clothes.I cleaned my boots, and set them aside to dry, going barefoot for now. Though I was careful to watch for those pins the guy pulled out, because those looked like they would hurt. It was too hot to put on socks. I laid back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I looked over at Hisoka, who was building his fourth card tower. He finally looked up at me. "Care to join me?"

I decided I would, why not. I started racing him at building card towers, and out of our five rounds I beat him twice. I hadn't really build that many towers before though, so go figure. The three of us ended up playing card games all night. I finally went to sleep when I deemed them safe, though I was woken up later to see the hotel owners leaving. I had pulled my black socks and boots on on the way out, and I had half a mind to try to reach the airship, but I decided against it. A lot of people stood around in underwear, thank god I didn't undress like some girls. I would have been pissed.

Gon looked at me. "Celeste! I haven't seen you since we got here! How'd you do, what room did you get? Who are you sharing it with?"

"That, Gon, would be because I didn't want you to." I said sharply. "I did fine, first class room. Not so good on the roommates. Hisoka and Gittarackur."

"You didn't want me to? And Hisoka!?" Gon said, suddenly realizing what I'd said. "You can't stay in there!"

"He didn't hurt me Gon. We just played cards for a while and went to bed. It's fine. And yes, I didn't want you to. I'm still mad at you guys for underestimating me. I'm sick of it." I said, walking away over to Pokkle. 'Thanks to you, idiot, I got a room with Hisoka and pin-head."

"Woops," Pokkle said scratching the back of his head. "Sorry. Guess a handicapped rating would have been better."

"Ya think!" I said, whacking his head, not very hard though. He looked away from me, probably feeling bad. "Don't worry about it, they didn't try anything." I went up to the radio place with Pokkle and Ponzu, unable to find a signal on it though. Pokkle pointed out that the thirty-six of us had been pretty much stranded, since we couldn't reach anyone on the radio, and the people left everything behind, minus directions as to what to do. I stayed with Pokkle while the others spread out to try to find something. They apparently found thirty-six compasses, measuring tools, and Kurapika found the most important thing. A map indicating a route to Zevil Island.

We concluded it was part of the Exam to get to Zevil Island. But Kurapika stopped everyone before they went out to find their way there. He pointed we knew where it was, but not how far it was. Who knew how long it could take us to get there. The water seemed calm, but who knew what could happen. And who knew what kind of supplies we need, and who knew what was true or not. He wanted to wait until nightfall for star tracking. Which Hanzo agreed on. Apparently the guy with the blow gun checked the water tank, and very little drinking water was left. Great.

The guy pointed out it would have to be possible to get there in two days, since that was how long we had left. Some people tried to stop everyone from splitting up, since that could be so fatal, but hardly anyone listened. I sighed and looked at Pokkle. "These people. I'm just drowning in the idiocity. Save me, tell me you have some type of help here."

"Sorry, no luck." Pokkle said, still messing with the radio. Everyone spread out, looking for stuff. But I pretty much ignored it all. I prefered to be a thinker, not a searcher. People started recovering boats to sail on. They were all so stupid. They had no chance. Pokkle pointed out a storm could actually help, it could help amplify something or other so we could reach someone. He knew a lot of technical terms. I agreed with Kurapika though, a storm would be the worst thing to come right now.

Finally baldly got to my thought process. There were too many shipwrecks. Something was wrong, something had happened here that made so many crash in the same spot. I felt my stomach turn as I imagined all of us dying from whatever could have possibly caused it. Pokkle looked at me. "You okay? You look kind of sick."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, brushing it off and standing up from where I was sitting on the edge of the table. I looked outside. A lot of people left on their own, and I felt a little bit sorry for them, since they would be sure to die, especially if a storm came in. I sighed. Nothing I could about it. I paced around for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do. I felt useless, and that wasn't a welcome feeling.

"Something on your mind?" Ponzu asked, and I looked at her.

"There has to be more. Something we're not getting, something we're not finding. This is all so complicated, but also at the same time so simple. They gave us what we need, we know it's what we need, but we don't know what to do with it. It's so... Empty. There's a fragment of information missing, and it's an important one. I want to know what it is, because I get the feeling it'll change a lot of this for us."

"I think you have a point. It seems like this is hard, but at the same time not. There should be something that should set it to easy or hard for us, but nothing has. It just depends on who you are and how you think." Gon and Killua found the ship's log book. Apparently Zevil island was close, and reachable by boat.

"Yo, guys!" I called up to the main room, then let Ponzu take over. She explained we were getting something over the radio over a wide range. Pokkle explained something about the atmospheric pressure changing. I could hear birds freaking out outside. I looked at Pokkle and Ponzu. "I'll be back." I headed outside, and they followed me. Everything was messed up, the atmosphere looked disoriented, horribly so. I stared at the messed up sun, something about it a little bit scary, and that's coming from me.

"You okay?" Pokkle asked again. "Your face is pale." I was listening to Kurapika reading the log book. That meant a horrible storm. I didn't like storms. I bowed my head and nodded.

"I'm fine. Just a bit thrown off guard, that's all." I didn't like things I couldn't do anything about, and storms were one of them. No one could do anything, we had to let it happen. The storm started soon, a water spout in the middle of the storm appeared. Boats started getting pulled in. Pokkle put a hand on my shoulder as I lost my balance, the waves picking up a little bit.

"Maybe you should sit down-"

"No! Not while everyone else is out here, helping. I'm not going to be made useless like this."

_I was six years old, looking out the window. I saw lightning touch ground far away, and the trees were soon alight with fire. I looked up at Illumi, who was watching with what I believed to be boredom. "We gotta help! People are gonna get hurt! Illumi!"_

_"There's nothing to worry about, we'll be fine. Nobody else matters. There's nothing anyone can do about a storm. Not even us. We have to let it run it's course. There's no stopping it. I know what you're thinking, but you can't leave. You can't help."_

Not this time. I was in sync with Gon as we jumped off the side of the boat to save the guy with the hat and blow gun, I still never paid attention to his name. Water forced everyone into the ship. Gon and I struggled to get to the guy's boat. I hadn't realized what I had done until it was too late, but it didn't matter now. I had a fear of drowning. But Gon could get hurt too easily now for me to care. We climbed on his boat, and I heard Killua call our names. Gon cast his line, and Killua hooked the hook on the rope and threw it back. Gon and I kept the two boats together, as I let the terror hit me, unlooking at anyone.

"Are you okay?" Killua asked, and when I didn't respond he looked at me. "Celeste? You're white as a ghost. Don't worry, we're gonna be fine." Gon looked at me, and his eyes widened.

"I forgot! You're afraid of drowning, right?" _Three months ago, Gon and I sat on one of the higher branches of a tree. I was bored, watching the water for movement. Suddenly, Gon got a tug on his fishing pole. Before I knew what was happening, The fishing line started flying all over the place, Gon was having trouble getting a grip on the fish. It whipped around and knocked me off the tree; I couldn't breath. The line had hit me across the back of the neck. I fell into the water below, sinking fast. I struggled to get my barrings, but I couldn't. I couldn't think straight at all._

_Suddenly, someone's arm was around me. I was going up, but my lungs were practically full of water. When I reached the air above I gasped for air, not registering Gon was the one saving me quite yet. I was sinking straight into my assassins instincts and trying to get away. My mind told me whoever it was was the enemy, and they'd been waiting for me to screw up so that they could take me out. Eventually Gon got me to the land and forced me to calm down, finally looking me in the eye. I calmed down when I realized it was Gon, and was soon able to breath again._

For some reason, water had always scared me. Though after that incident, I had a reason. "I'm fine..."

"You shouldn't have jumped in like that, Celeste. I would have been fine." Gon said disapprovingly.

I sighed. "Gon, don't you get it? My fear of you dying is worse than my fear of drowning," I said so only he could hear. "Plus, Mito would have my head." Soon we all made it inside the boat as the storm started whipping everything away. Killua, Gon, and Pokkle stuck close to me, because my face refused to regain it's color. In twenty-four hours, after the storm calmed, everything would be under water. I thought I was going to pass out when he told us that. I lost my balance, though I was sitting, and fell back. Pokkle and Gon caught me and brought me back up.

"Don't worry, Celeste! We'll figure something out, I promise!" Gon said, trying to comfort me. I didn't respond. I just went off the the corner. _You're too scared. You should know better than to let something so simple to scare you._ Illumi's voice echoed, and it scared me at first, since I wasn't used to randomly hearing his voice.

"_No... It's not simple... It's everyone I care about's life..._" _You don't care about anyone but yourself, there's no need. They're useless._

"_No they're not... One of them is like my brother, and one of them is... People matter... Now leave me alone._"

_"You can't save it. It's fate has been set. There's no point in wasting your time on it anyway, it's weak. It has nothing to do with you. It doesn't matter." Illumi said. I was six, and there was a dog whose legs had been crushed by a car in front of me. I shook my head, tears in my eyes._

_"No, you're wrong. All life matters, not just mine, not just yours. Even it's life matters. There has to be a way to save it."_

_"There is no way. Now come on Ellilou. Lets go."_ He never let me save anything or anyone. This time I would help. I stood up. I wasn't weak. I would help save us all, I wouldn't be handicapped by fear. Gon said we should use the ship we were on, much to Leorio's annoyance, saying it was scrap metal. The ship's engine apparently still worked. We had less than twenty hours to unground the ship and get it moving. We weren't abandoning ship. We were taking it with us.

We had to dislodge the ship from the ground, We formulated a plan, including Leorio's previously found cannon stuff. Pokkle, Ponzu, and I were going to get the engine going. The weight was off, and the seaweed had to be cleared. Killua didn't want to do so much work, but agreed to go clear the seaweed, and we figured out the weight problem. Only twenty four of us remained. I went with Pokkle and Ponzu. We couldn't fail. We had less than twenty hours to do more work than we could imagine. But if we didn't succeed, then we'd never do work again.

Leorio was sent to find shells for the cannon-things. Go figure.

Pokkle admitted the truth. If we didn't get the engine to run, we'd all die under water. There was something wrong, I thought I heard someone. Someone needed help. But I couldn't help, I had to help everyone else right now. We were doing well with the engine. But Leorio was stuck, I heard. I swallowed hard. Leorio. He had been such an idiot, I never thought I would care. I froze for a second before continuing to help. I couldn't help him. I'm sorry, Leorio.

We had just over ten minutes. We apparently were doing well, I was doing what they told me to. Pokkle started talking. "This is it. We've only got one shot at this. If the engines fail to engage pressure then the boilers will drop off. It would take at least twenty minutes to bring them back up again. But it'd be all over by then. I can't get my mind off of it. The lives of twenty-six people are now in my hands." Ponzu and I put our hands on top of Pokkle's. The three of us didn't say anything as we pulled it down, after nodding at each other that we were ready. We waited. It started up. Pokkle told everyone else, and I realized I was holding my breath and released it.

There were sounds of stuff breaking everywhere as turrets were turned. I felt my stomach churn as I imagined being trapped down there as the room filled with water. Apparently I zoned for a minute, because I suddenly felt someone slap my cheek. I brought my hand up to see Pokkle in front of me. "Snap out of it! Everything's going to be okay. Stop worrying." I felt where he hit my cheek, and he smiled and went back to what he was doing. I helped them pull the levers. I heard Kurapika fall, then I heard them say they lost Gon. I felt myself panicking. What was going on? "Gon!" I went to leave the room, but Pokkle stopped me. "You'll get hurt, stay down here."

"I can't, that's Gon out here! I have to protect him! I-" _Calm down._ Illumi's voice stopped me, and we hit a bad wave. I slammed into the wall, and everything faded away.

When I woke up, I was next to Gon. I let out a sigh of relief and hugged him tight. "You worried me you stupid idiot. How could you risk your life like that?" I realized I was crying as I hugged him tighter.

"Celeste?" He said, obviously not used to this coming from me. He hugged me back, and we sat there for a second. "It's okay, we both made it. So did Leorio, and Killua. And Kurapika. Everyone's alright. Everything's okay now, Celeste."

"You gave me a heart attack..." I said releasing him. "I hated it, I couldn't do anything."

We soon made it to Zevil Island, after the airship came and picked us up. We drew lots, that corresponded with the ID badges we got before the first phase. Apparently they decided who we were hunting, and who was hunting us. We had to steal each other's badges. Whoever's number was the one we picked first, was who we were targeting. Our own badge and our target's back would each be worth three points, equalling the six pfoints we needed to pass. Anyone elses would be worth one.

Then they gave us the no brainer information that we could come back next year. Fat chance, me and Gon would pass no problem. I split up from the others, after hiding my badge. The badge I needed was going to be an issue. Gittarackur's. Something wasn't right about him, and there was obviously a problem with that. I normally wouldn't be afraid to approach someone, but something about him warded me off easily. I showed Killua and Gon my badge later.

"Gittarackur's." I explained before they tried to figure out out. "Should be fun. I'll probably try to go get three other badges, I'll have a better shot at that. The only problem is, if I did that, I'd have at least seven people after me. The person who's hunting me originally, the three people's who's badges I stole, and the three people who are hunting them. Not sure which way is worse though, Gittarackur, or seven people."

"Are you worried about someone killing you?" Killua asked, and I shook my head.

"I don't like being followed. Privacy. Except Gittarackur. I'm worried of what he might do to keep his badge. I can't die, not for something stupid like that. I guess I'll just go with it."

I went in before Gon did. I turned to look at him. "Gon. Be careful. If you need to, find me. We can work together. I don't want you getting hurt, and knowing you you will. You are after Hisoka's badge after all. See ya." I turned and walked off the ship before he could respond. I immediately went off to find Gittarackur. He seemed so calm.

"I can hear you, you know." He said. I sighed and came down, cautiously. I didn't trust this guy in the slightest, not that I trusted anyone. There was something about him though, something that made me trust him even less. I couldn't quite figure out what, but I _always_ trust my instincts. They are trained after all, they're almost never wrong. And I'd rather be over-cautious then leave myself unprepared. That was asking for death; at least that was always what my previous family had taught me.

"I've lost my touch. Anyways, your badge is my target. But I don't want to fight you. I don't need bad blood with you. I was wondering if you would mind making an alliance with me. I'm going to have to steal three other badges. This would mean having six people after me. The original owners of the badges, and those who were hunting for them. Not to mention the seventh person, the one who's hunting my badge. If you'll help keep me safe from them, you don't have to worry about me hunting you, and I'll help protect you too."

"Alright, I suppose we could do that. I don't see why not." I sighed in relief. I stayed with Gitterackur, and some lady who got his badge wrong tried to take it. I killed her from behind, and took her badge, and he gave me the badge of some other guy. He got the badge he needed. I just needed one more. Eventually we met up with Hisoka, who needed badges as well. I went off to find the one I still needed, and when I came back with three more, I have the spare two to Hisoka. Then he told me Gitterackur had buried himself until the end of the Exam, which was fine by me.

When it was over I left before he unburied himself, telling Hisoka to give him my thanks. I met up with the others, though something wasn't right with Gon. I found out about what happened between him and Hisoka later, and now knew that Hisoka couldn't be trusted. He'd hurt Gon. I wouldn't forgive him for that. Gon had felt helpless, and had no strength to find me. I was pissed, but I didn't let it show. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you Gon. I was supposed to come here to do that... And I failed. I'm sorry."

"No! Don't be, Celeste. You're trying your hardest, and we didn't have much of a choice this phase. All that matters is everyone's alright, and we all passed."


	4. Final Phase X Hating Hanzo X He Was Who?

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here! Chapter four time, I suppose. Because I kinda forgot to post chapters for a short patch of time here, gomenasai! xD I feel like I forgot to itala... it... _slant_ some stuff within the chapter but I dunno... I'm lazy. I did my best. xD Well, not much to say so... Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER. I AM NOT TOGASHI,** **MAN!**

* * *

Later, they had me explain what happened to me. I told them I teamed up with Gitterakur instead of taking his badge, and between me and him we got enough badges for me to pass, and had no trouble from who was hunting me. Apparently Hisoka had killed that guy. When I finished, Gon nodded. "At least you didn't have to worry about making him mad. But he can speak?"

"He can pull those pins out of his head without flinching, and put them back in too. I saw this the night on the boat I shared a room with them," I said, shrugging. "So yeah, he can speak."

"Wow! I wonder how he does it. Do they bleed a lot?"

"Not at all, actually," I said shaking my head. "It's like they were never there, but he always manages to put them back in the exact same spot."

Later I found out Pokkle failed the fourth phase of his first Exam. Must have sucked, being so close. The old man didn't make it past the first phase last year though, so I suppose he did better. He explained what each phase was for though, endurance, resourcefulness, I didn't care. We already finished those, they didn't matter now. We hadn't been tested knowledge yet though. So he figured we'd have a written exam.

So everyone but Hisoka, Gittarakur, the old man, and I ran off to the on board library. I didn't because like the guy said, he was just thinking out loud. He had no idea if that was for sure. And in my opinion, stress studying would get me nowhere but Stressville. I got the feeling Killua and Gon ran off somewhere else though, or at least Gon. He wasn't the type to study. Then again, neither was Killua. His greatest weakness was math problems, last time I checked.

Later, over the intercom they announced to come to the conference room when our number was called. Forty-four was first, Hisoka. So were we going to the final exam? I really just wanted this thing over with, so hopefully I could escape before Killua realized who I was. I didn't want to go home. Though I can't say he himself would send me home, I get the feeling he'd let it slip to someone in the family and it'd all go to Hell. Hisoka came out, then my number was called. Great. When I walked in, I saw the chairman with a table in front of him, sitting on the floor. "This isn't the final exam, is it? If it is, it's quite a let down. I was expecting something more... Well... Exciting."

"No, no. This is just me asking you some questions. Please, sit down," I did as told, glad that I at least wouldn't be bored through the final phase. "Now then, why do you want to become a Hunter?"

"Well, to be quite honest with you, I didn't come here to become a Hunter. Being a Hunter has never been a priority for me, and to this moment it still isn't. I came here to protect Gon, that's it. But getting my license would be nice, I'm sure I could find a way to make it of some use. Might as well keep trying, since Gon is going to. And since I've gotten this far."

"I see," the chairman nodded. "Now, of these applicants, who do you think is the most intriguing?" He asked, spreading out the pictures of all of us who remained, minus me of course. I looked at them all, thinking for a minute, then pointed to Gittarakur.

"Him, I'm not sure why though. Something about him... Is just... Off. You know? I get the feeling he's hiding something, but if he is, he's good at hiding it. There's nothing off about his heartbeat, so he'd have to know how to manipulate it."

"Do you?"

"Of course. Though I'd appreciate it if you didn't advertise it."

"Alright. One more question. Which applicant would you least like to fight against?"

This one took me a moment. I looked at everyone, a reason to not fight them coming into my head for almost every one of them, but not quite. Honzu was cocky, I'd love to show him up, and I had no reason to not fight the old man. "Well, I guess I'd have to say Gon, on a personal level, since his safety is why I came here. As far as well... I guess you could say 'fear', goes, Gittarackur again. Though I'd really like to not fight Killua, I think he's probably stronger than me." He had been through more training after all.

After that, I stuck to myself. I didn't want anyone changing my decisions, and I had a feeling talking to anyone might. And I didn't feel like dealing with Gon or Killua. I was sure they'd question me, try to get me to carry on a conversation, and to be honest that was the last thing I wanted to do right now. When we arrived at the final phase, we were told we'd be in a one-on-one tournament. It appeared as though only one of us would pass, but in reality only one of us would fail. I was up against Killua. Great. Thanks old man. I guess it was better than Gittarackur. Kurapika was against Hisoka first.

I couldn't pay attention. I just didn't want to watch my friend possibly get beaten, you never knew what Hisoka would do. I was mentally steeling myself for my match against Killua. Hisoka forfeited apparently, Kurapika got his license. I was happy for him, but I saw his eyes turn red. Something was wrong with the ending of that match. I would have spent time to worry about Kurapika and make sure he was okay, but I was too busy worrying about the next match.

Honzu against Gon. Oh hell. I didn't like it. Gon moved fast at the beginning, but eventually Honzu caugh up to him. Gon jumped around, trying to avoid the taunting Honzo. He was suddenly standing on Gon's foot, Gon on his hand and other foot with his foot in the air. He jerked his leg away and got up to move again, but Honzu karate chopped the back of his neck. I growled. Oh hell no. Gon fell to the floor, and when I went to step forward Killua but a clawed hand to my throat. I could feel my eyes widen when I saw his hand, knowing he could probably kill me if he really wanted to. "You'll get disqualified." I sighed irritatedly as he removed his hand. Hanzo picked Gon up and shook him, saying about the fight not being over so he had to wake up. _Fucking bastard_. Gon didn't look like he could focus period, and Honzo tried to make him surrender.

Never gonna happen. So when Gon refused to surrender, He hit Gon hard on the side of the head, causing Gon to start coughing hard. He kept trying, but Gon refused. He hit Gon again, causing him to cough harder. I growled deeply, hating this. How could he just keep hurting Gon like this? He slammed Gon to the floor, and blood came from his face. My own nails changed to claws like Killua's did, but without noticing Killua smacked the side of my head, just enough to make me remember intervening would get me thrown out. I quickly made my nails return to normal before he could notice. Leorio tried to stop him, but I didn't pay attention to what he said.

Gon tried to do something to Honzo, but he was already one step ahead of him. When Gon got up he had blood smeared on his face, but he was still ready to fight. But I could tell by the look in Gon's eyes, he couldn't even see Honzo anymore. The chop to the back of the head had screwed with his brain like Honzo said. He couldn't see anything. Gon tried to hit him again, probably following the sound of his voice, but got punched in the face instead, sending him back to the floor. He crushed one of his ears. I growled. Gon poured water Killua threw to him over himself, and it seemed to help a little bit. Gon continued the fight. Taking hit after hit.

Over three hours went by, and Pokkle and Killua were both holding me back now. When this was over, I was giving Honzo hell. I realized I had tears in my eyes right before he broke Gon's arm. And when he did, they came out, both of fury and of helplessness, most likely. "Stop it, damn it! Stop hurting him! This is enough, it's over kill! He's not giving up, and you're going to kill him! Then where will we be? You'll be kicked out and you'll have killed a kid! And I swear to god, it won't matter to me what the price is. If you kill him, you're next!" He didn't respond, and my stomach churned as the breaking noise replayed through my head.

Leorio was going to do something, I didn't care. I covered my ears, trying to stop the noise from replaying, I closed my eyes shut. I couldn't see or hear anymore, anymore of Gon's noises of pain. Honzo started his life story, but I didn't care. I cared nothing about him. I wanted him dead. I opened my eyes, wiping the tears away, uncovering my ears. He asked Gon to surrender again. His response to that was whipping up on his bad hand and knocking the balancing ninja over. It almost killed me to hear the noises of pain coming from Gon._ You shouldn't be so worried. Crying over something so stupid will get you nowhere._ "Shut up!" I realized I yelled it out loud, and everyone looked at me, but I didn't care. I couldn't stand hearing Illumi's voice right now._ Control your emotions, they'll get suspicious if you keep calling out like that._

The stress hit me in a really bad wave. I grabbed Pokkle's shoulder for support, and he and Killua helped me stand up straight. I felt like I was going to be sick. Gon forced himself up. Leorio wanted him to kill Honzo, I did too, but I knew he wouldn't, even if it would mean he could pass. Everyone's faith was regained, but I knew Gon couldn't go to well. Everyone held back laughter when they saw the blood coming from Honzo's nose, he claimed he'd let him hit him. Lies. I released Pokkle's shoulder to cover my mouth, trying really hard not to laugh. He was handed something to wipe his mouth. Weakling. Then he pulled a blade from his glove-arm-thing. I was still amused, but I glared. He threatened to chop him off at the knees. He only had one chance, or he could never walk again.

"That doesn't sound good." Gon countered, and started trying to find another way to settle this. I tried not to laugh. Honzo was obviously irritated. Gon pointed out he'd fail if he killed Gon, which would happen if he bled to death, which would happen if he cut his legs off. I was in the same boat as Hisoka, and soon the others. We were trying really hard not to laugh. Honzo seized the blade at Gon's forehead, but only let the tip touch, and blood trickled down out of the tiny cut.

"Dig it in deeper I dare you..." I mumbled under my breath, regaining my mental strength and standing back up straight. Honzo pointed out he could kill Gon, and he couldn't come back. But he could next year. Gon needed to give up, but he wouldn't. Killua and I's nails twitched into claw form and back. He kept trying to convince Gon to give up, but he didn't. And Honzo was yelling. Gon told him why, his dad. he had to find his dad. He would never surrender. Honzo said he would die, and Gon said he wouldn't do it. Honzo yelled that Gon was finished and pulled the blade back, a drop of blood dropping to the floor below. I looked away. "Damn it Gon!"

He took the blade away, returning it into it's spot. Honzo surrendered. Gon didn't like that. He said they had to find another way, he didn't want to win by forfeit. They started arguing, but I found that part amusing. Not so much the punch Gon received. Honzo surrendered anyway. Gon passed. He earned his license. I gave a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Stupid kid..." I said, looking away. Next was me and Killua. I looked at him. I wanted nothing to do with this match, but Gon passed. I had to too, I couldn't let him out do me.

When the match started, I immediately shot behind Killua and slammed my fist into his back, knocking the wind out of him for a second. Obviously he hadn't expected me to be able to, or else he could have deflected that easily. I jumped back to avoid his clawed hand, turning my own into claws. I dodged several swipes, then landed one of my own on his cheek. I converted my claws back to nails and backflipped several times, landing on my hands, then feet, several times. I dodged to the right when he came at me, and kicked his stomach. I just barely hit him though, and he raked his claws on my neck. Neither of us showed signs of pain as we continued at each other. It was like we were mindlessly training again, and let me just say that's a wave of nostalgia I could have lived without. I attempted punching him several times, but he was fast. He swept my legs out from under me, but I came back up on my hands and spun, kicking him down with me. I pinned him down and wrapped my hands around his throat, hoping he'd pass out from lack of oxygen. He obviously could breath and move, but our eyes met. I figured he was starting to make a connection, but when he opened his mouth, he said nothing of it. "I surrender. There's no point in fighting her." I released him and stood up, going back over to Pokkle, who looked like he thought I might hurt him.

"Don't worry about it, Pokkle. I don't hurt for fun." I said reassuringly as Killua came back over. I took the towel he was handed but hadn't used from his hands and wiped the blood off his cheek. "I'm sorry... I didn't want to hurt you. I honestly didn't. I just... When the battle started everything changed in my head, I-"

"Don't worry about it. You were doing what you had to. I'll win my next match." He said, taking the towel back.

No he wouldn't.

When it came time for his next match, I almost instantly froze. Right when it was about to start, Gittarackur stopped him. Then he pulled all of the pins out of his head, completely changing his face. Or returning it to normal. Opposed to his previous bald head, he now had slick black hair that went past his waist. And his eyes were almost pure black. I hadn't seen those eyes in a few years, besides in my nightmares. Illumi. I couldn't move, couldn't think. Couldn't scream. Pokkle tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear what he was saying, I barely could tell it was him. I think Kurapika tried to help too though.

Illumi kept telling Killua he had no right to have friends, nor did he need him. It was all I could focus on, their match. Killua tried to fight back, he really did. But Illumi was in control. He convinced Killua to forfeit. Killua's eyes were blank, and I was sure mine were too. I still couldn't move, even after the match ended and Leorio was about to go up against the old guy. Illumi stood by us. "Elillu." I tightened up even more, and slowly looked at Illumi. Killua obviously wasn't paying attention. Suddenly Killua was behind the old man, and killed him. Then he left.

"K-Killua!" I called, but was too scared to go after him. It was obvious, to me anyways, it was Illumi's goal. And I would never get in Illumi's way.

On our way to discuss some stuff, someone slapped my cheek. I realize I'd been staring mindlessly, walking without really trying. I looked to see Pokkle, and Kurapika. I couldn't tell who'd smacked me, but my money was on Pokkle, considering I doubted Kurapika would have. Pokkle sighed. "Finally. Are you alright?"

I looked away. "I'm fine."

"You're lying, aren't you?" Pokkle said. "You completely froze up when you saw that guy change. Do you know him?"

I swallowed hard. "He's my brother."

"But, I thought he was Killua's brother." Pokkle said, obviously confused.

"He is. And Celeste, or Ellilou, which is apparently her real name, is Killua's sister. I figured this out back at trick tower."

"S-She is?" Pokkle looked at me, then blinked hard. "I mean, I see the resemblance, and they were closely matched in fighting, but... I never thought..."

"That was the point. I tried really hard to shake off any signs of being his sister. I didn't want Killua to know. I was thrown out, because I told my father I'd rather die homeless on the streets than assassinate anymore. He granted my wish. I don't want anything to do with the family, though I managed to end up around Killua during the exam. And apparently... Illumi."

We walked in silence, and I froze when I felt a hand on my shoulder. The other two walked a few extra steps, then turned to look at me. I slowly looked up and saw Illumi standing there. "Are you ready to come home, Elillu?"

"Dad threw me out. I'm not welcome there anymore."

"I've contacted him. He said to bring you home," I looked away, and suddenly Kurapika and Pokkle pulled me forwards and started walking with me, Leorio walking behind us. I felt my eyes widen. He could easily kill any of them.

"D-Don't get in Illumi's way... He'll just kill you. He has a license that'll let him now. Not that he wouldn't do it before."

"He's not doing anything, so leave it." Leorio said, shoving me forward a little bit since I was walking slow. We soon made it to some room, where they rambled on about Hunters stuff. I was slowly getting a grip, but I eyed Illumi the whole time, sitting next to Pokkle a few rows higher than Illumi in the rows of seats we were sitting in. All I wanted to do was bolt at this point, I didn't even care that I'd gotten my hunters license. I just knew if Illumi wanted me to come home bad enough, I could be completely helpless.

It took me a second to register when Gon came in. He walked down to Illumi, not even stopping for me, Kurapika, or Leorio. I watched, completely horrified. The last thing I wanted was him talking to Illumi, or making Illumi mad. Not that we'd really know he was mad, he was _still_ emotionless. I completely froze when he flipped Illumi, I swear he broke his arm. I fell forward out of my seat, I'd almost followed my first instinct to go protect Gon, but was too weak from the shock to do so. I pushed myself up and growled. "Illumi."

Illumi turned to look at me and raised his eyebrows. I didn't say a word. I couldn't. I just gave him the sharpest look I could, a look that would have made anyone else in the room bolt, besides maybe Hisoka or the chairman. I sat back down, and had to tune Gon out. I couldn't stand the thought of him getting hurt. All I knew was Gon had to stay back and learn all the Hunters stuff, so I went with Pokkle to talk. We sat down on a bench, and he looked at me. "Are you alright? Through this whole exam you've seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't break to torture, but just the sight of Illumi shattered you."

"Because Illumi can shatter me. Illumi isn't afraid of anything, especially not forcing me to do what he wants. Hell, he's the one who literally tossed me out of my house. Illumi doesn't do brother-sister relationships. He doesn't care about me. He cares that all the precious Zoldyck children are at the house and in line. Ready to assassinate on command. I got tossed out for telling my father I'd rather die alone on the streets than take anyone else's life. And that still stands. Killing isn't a desire for me, maybe an instinct occasionally, but never a desire."

"That's amazing... With the way you were raised. You'd think it'd be all you wanted to do."

"I wasn't raised that way. I don't consider what the Zoldycks did to me raising me. That was torturing me. Aunt Mito raised me." Pokkle smiled at me sympathetically, and after a second I just looked away. I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Ellilou. You should come home now. You know you've been gone for too long."

"Y-You're the ones who kicked me out. I can't be gone for too long. Because I can't go back. By kicking me out, you erased my rights or need to come back. Therefore, you can't time the amount of time I was gone and judge it too long or too short." I said sharply, slowly getting a grip, not turning to look at Illumi.

"Ellilou-"

"Hey, leave her alone man! She's right, you tossed her out, you don't deserve her anymore!' Pokkle said, standing up, his fists clenched. I could see the fury in his eyes, and mine widened. I jumped up and tackled him to the ground, cushioning the back of his head with my hands so that he didn't get hurt too badly. I managed to help him dodge the needles just in time.

I pushed myself up, standing in between Illumi and Pokkle. "Don't hurt him Illumi. Leave him out of this. This is between me and you."

"He brought himself into it, I wouldn't have had the need to attack if he hadn't spoken."

"Shut up Illumi! Just leave him alone! If you want to fight me, fight me. But don't touch him!" I yelled, shocked at my own courage. But it quickly faded away as he raised his hand up towards me, slowly walking towards me as he'd done to Kil. I started shaking, some feeling enveloping me. As he came closer I felt someone put their hands on my shoulders.


	5. Home X Hell X No Escape

"Hey man, leave her alone!" Pokkle said, though I was shocked I was registering anything that was happening. All I could look at were Illumi's cold black eyes, staring down into my weak, brittle core. "

_"No. I'm not weak__. That's just Illumi influencing my thinking."_

"Pokkle... Run..." I heard my own quiet, shaky voice. I hadn't even realized I'd spoken at first. "He'll kill you and me both and won't flinch. Leave."

"Ellilou-"

"I said leave damn it!" I yelled suddenly,clenching my hands into fists. I turned around and shoved Pokkle away. I didn't like having Illumi behind me though, so I quickly turned back around. He stood right there, and my stomach turned. I should have never let him out of my sight, he would tell me that later. He'd tell me letting a target out of sight is never a 'proper course of action'. He dragged me off into the shade, where Hisoka was. He kept me next to him, Hisoka being a few feet away, and the feeling never left me. I felt like if I moved now, I'd die. And to be honest, I probably would. Soon enough though, Gon came. He wasn't happy, but I was too scared to pay attention to what was going on. Something about Killua.

Gon looked at me finally. "Ellilou?" He must have been told my name by Kurapika and Leorio.

"She's going home too, so you shouldn't concern yourself with her.

"No! Ellilou is my sister now, you're not taking her back!" Gon said, suddenly enraged. He stood between me in Illumi, and I don't think I'd ever seen him that mad. It seemed like throughout the end of the Exam, I'd just kept seeing increasingly worse stages of anger coming from Gon. He quickly grabbed my hand and ran off with. I was certain Illumi would come to get me, but he never did. I didn't speak, and I didn't listen, too terrified of the situation. So it seemed this Exam had just provoked my fears. Losing Gon. Drowning. _Illumi._

Gon looked at me after a while of my silence though. "Ellilou?"

"Y-Yeah?" I said, looking at him. He smiled.

"Didn't you hear us? We're going to the Zoldyck estate."

His words hung in the air for a second as I froze, trying to properly process what he said. Trying to convince myself he'd said something else. "We're what?

"We're going to the Zoldyck estate to get Killua back!" Gon said, grinning. I could tell Kurapika was eyeing me very carefully, and I figured Leorio didn't care. I took a step back from them, shaking my head.

"N-No. I am not going back there. I'm not welcome there. Besides, that'd just make it easier for Illumi to make me stay. W-We don't want that. I can't go, I won't go, you can't make me!" I kept backing away, but Gon quickly grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"We would never let them take you, Ellilou. Besides, they disowned you. They don't have the right to make you stay anymore. If anyone has the right to make you stay anywhere, it's Aunt Mito and I. And I'm willing to fight for that right if they make me." Gon smiled at me and hugged me, reminding me a kid a good three inches shorter than me was braver than me at the moment.

"Gon..." I said quietly. He knew who the Zoldycks were, how powerful they were. And he was still willing to fight them for me. I suddenly felt no anger towards him about anything that'd happened during the exam, I just hugged him. I sighed. "Do I really have to go back?"

"Sorry Ellilou, but we have to get Killua back! You don't want him stuck there, do you?"

"Of course not. I wouldn't wish that on anyone... Not even Hisoka or Illumi... Although... I think Illumi likes it there..." I sighed. "_My little brother is there... i have to save him..."__  
_

"Hmmm... Well... Killua is waiting! Lets get going!" Gon said, tugging me along with him as he started running.

"Wait, Ellilou!" I heard Pokkle's voice call. He ran over to me, and Gon released my hand as Pokkle put his hands on my shoulders. "Are you alright? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, I'm fine... Well... Mostly..."

"Where are you headed?"

I was quiet again for a second, then sighed again. "Home. If you can call it that."

"I wouldn't. Not with the way they treated you there." Kurapika responded, and Gon nodded in agreement, followed by Pokkle and Leorio.

"Are you sure you should go? I mean, Illumi seemed pretty intent on getting and keeping you there... And... You seemed scared of him... Are you sure you can fight back if he or any of your family tries to make you stay?"

"I can fight them for her." Gon said smiling, putting a hand on my shoulder now that Pokkle had removed his.

"Besides, not all of my family can beat me. I know I can beat Killua now, and maybe Kalluto... Though then again probably not, at this point he's probably had more training than I have. And Alluka... Well... It depends on how they would go about the situation with Alluka... And... Well... There's always Milluki. I could kick his ass easily. He only could have gotten fatter."

"Wait, a Zoldyck, fat? That doesn't sound right."

"Don't ask me, he was fat by time I was born." I said shrugging, then turned to look at the others. "Alright, lets go. Lets get this chaos over with." After exchanging stuff like Home Codes with Pokkle, we headed off.

I won't bore you with the details or anything, you wouldn't find much interest in them. Once we got there, I couldn't look away from the gates. Gon and the others tried to open it, and as they were talking to the guy who fed the almighty Mike, I slowly put my hands against it. I took a deep breath and shoved, and the door slowly gave. I heard the Mike-feeder's voice. "It looks like your friend there can open it."

I let the door close, slowly. "The gate must be loose or something man, why would I be able to open it?" That was my way of making it obvious to Gon and the others I didn't want my identity brought up here, especially in front of the staff.

I love Gon to death, but sometimes he's such an idiot.

"Let me see your key. I know it's a fake, but I'd rather go through the fake gate than be tested about my friendship." I looked at him, my eyes widening. Not even I could fight Mike. I didn't think even _Illumi_ could fight Mike off, if he had to. Gon had no chance. Eventually he convinced the feeder to open the gate, and Gon went inside. Mike was immediately alert, and lurched at Gon. I rushed inside, stepping between the two, my arms protectively out to shield him.

"Mike, heel!" I commanded. The giant dog from my childhood immediately stopped. "Do not attack!" Mike slowly returned to laying down, and slowly I relaxed, my heart pounding. I didn't think it was going to work, since Mike hadn't seen me in years. Plus, I figured the Zoldycks could have told him not to listen to me anymore. Maybe they forgot, or maybe the mutt was loyal. Either way, I didn't care as long as Gon was safe.

"That's strange... Mike only listens to-"

"You should train your mutt to obey only members of the family, if that's what you're going to tell everyone is the case. Don't you think?" I asked sharply, turning to look at them. I got about a foot from Gon's face, glaring. "And you! Just what the hell did you think you were doing there!? In the years that I've known you, I've never seen you as a suicidal maniac! After everything we went through to get you through the Exam, all the stress I thought was over, you go and do _**that!?**_I am not beyond kicking your ass, especially since you're trying to get it kicked yourself!"

"Calm down, E- Celeste! I'm okay, see? You saved me, like you always do." Gon grinned at me, and I felt myself slowly relax, though my heart still pounded. The fact he'd almost called me by my real name didn't help either. But did he really trust me to save him every time? I mean, I would, but did he actually believe I could?

Eventually we ended up concluding we all had to be able to open the gate, not just me single-handedly. For weeks they trained, and I did too, although it was much easier for me. And go figure, they finally got the gate open. Too bad for them, the gate was the easy part of getting up the mountain if you weren't part of the family or staff. Because next came Kanary.

I wanted to kill Kanary the instant she hit Gon with her stupid staff-thing. But I kept my cool. Because not only would it be about as bad as killing an actual Zoldyck, but it'd reveal my identity. Besides, in the end I couldn't blame her, it was her job. And you can't tell the Zoldycks you won't do your job, unless of course you're suicidal. I just got lucky, I guess because I was a Zoldyck child. I never thought I'd say being a Zoldyck child would make me lucky, but then again I wouldn't need that luck if I wasn't a Zoldyck child. And we did have a rule about not killing each other. So, like at the Exam, I watched Gon get hit time after time, fury boiling inside of me. I didn't even notice Kalluto walk up next to me, and I almost jumped when he tapped me on the shoulder. I looked at him carefully. "Mother and Father have requested you come up, Ellilou."

"I have no desire to see your parents." I responded coldly, not looking his way. I watched Gon be hit by Kanary once again.

"Our parents told me to get you... I can't go back without you." I sighed, looking away from Gon and Kanary. I really didn't want to get the poor kid in trouble, I had no malice towards him. Though I probably wouldn't have screwed with Illumi. Though I would _love_ to cause trouble for good ol' Milluki though. Killua or Alluka though, not so much.

"I have no desire to see this either. Lets go, Kalluto." I started following Kalluto, and as I neared Kanary's side, I heard Kurapika.

"Ellilou..." I turned to him, Gon on the ground. I put my finger to my lips, motioning towards Gon with my eyes, and turned away, continuing to follow Kalluto without a word. I felt Kanary's eyes on me, but I could tell from the beginning she'd realized who I was. I followed Kalluto up the mountain, now using my silent assassin walking, on high alert. I was led inside, where Silva stood, his arms crossed, next to Kikiyo.

"It seems our daughter has returned home." Silva said, and I managed to keep my voice calm and cold, determined not to give them the satisfaction of showing anything else.

"Don't call me that. I'm not your daughter, you disowned me five years ago. I'm no longer your daughter, and I have no desire to be. You have no right to claim me as such."

"I see you still have your attitude. Aren't you grateful that we're welcoming you back?"

I narrowed my eyes. "My statement still stands. I'd rather die starving on the streets than assassinate for you. And to be honest, the obvious fact that I'll be punished and trained now isn't quite the guest I like having at a welcome-home party."

Silva shook his head, sighing. "You don't have that choice. You're going to stay here, and you're going to work for the family. You're our daughter whether you like it or not."

"Fat chance old man. I'd rather drop dead."

"That can be arranged." I locked into assassin sped, my nails claws. I tried to stab him, but he was already gone. I bent back to avoid his hands, which tried to grab my neck. I slipped under him and tried to stab him from behind, but he was already turned around, grabbing my wrists and painfully yanking them behind my back in one swift movement. He led me somewhere, and eventually Milluki's grubby hands took me. I would have fought back, it would have been easy to get away from Milluki, but I knew it'd be useless. They'd catch me.

Killua came into sight. He was hanging, chained up. He looked more bored than in pain, though fresh whip marks showed on his skin. Milluki shoved me into a very small room to change into a replica of my old training clothes. Black cropped shirt, black shorts. I sighed and changed, and came out, glaring. I walked to the chains next to Killua. "Ellilou?... Wait... No... You're Celeste... What are you doing in here?"

"You had it right the first time." That's all I said, quietly. My voice was weaker this time, though I wasn't sure why. Milluki locked my cuffs, and the whip started almost immediately. He lashed at me, my face, my stomach, arms, legs. I didn't flinch. I still could endure a lot of pain before I'd so much as twitch. He kept at it for a few minutes, then eventually got bored and irritated with me and switched to Killua.

When he stopped to eat, Killua looked at me. "You were Ellilou this whole time?"

"Isn't the better question, 'I was Celeste this whole time?'? You knew me as Ellilou first."

"But you're not Ellilou anymore... You're not a Zoldyck anymore."

"Yes I am. Whether I like it or want to accept it, I'm a part of this**_ damn_ **family. Silva has already made sure to make that clear. He kicked me out, disowned me, and dragged me back. It was probably his _stupid_ plan the whole time... So I'm stuck here, no matter what... But... At least it's with you." I said, smiling slightly at him. We were close enough for our fingertips to touch, and I stretched mine so I could touch his. "You are my little brother after all."

"Ellilou... You only came here because I was here, right? You never would have came back if Gon hadn't made you come save me."

"Gon didn't make me do anything. He's the one who brought it up, but he didn't have to drag me here. Sure, I protested about coming at first. But then I realized. You're my little brother, and you needed me. And even though I'm not much help hanging in chains next to you... At least... I can still be here for you." The whip hit my cheek right when I got done, and I still didn't react. Maybe at the moment I was emotionally soft, but I couldn't be physically soft anymore thanks to them.

The whipping lasted a long time, and eventually Killua fell asleep. I had to keep my laughter to myself as Milluki got very irritated at this, and I decided I'd help contribute to the irritation. I fell asleep too, I'd had enough training his stupid weak whippings wouldn't wake me up.

_"Ellilou. What have I told you? It has nothing to do with you or your training, so it doesn't matter." Illumi said, pulling me away from the doorway. Inside Killua was screaming, he was five. They had his electricity set higher than either of us were used to, even me. He was already good at hiding pain, so hearing him scream was killing me._

_"That's my little brother in there, it has everything to do with me!" I said, trying to shove my way back into the doorway, but Illumi held me back._

_"It has nothing to do with you, Ellilou. Continue to try to go in there and I will have to punish you." I stopped dead, my fear of Illumi kicking in. I froze. I was able to see Killua, in pain, the electricity sparking heavily around his cuffs. He was in pain, he needed someone to save him. I was his older sister, wasn't that what I was supposed to do? But I couldn't move, I was too scared of Illumi._

_"I'm sorry Killua..." I thought, wanting so badly to save him. But there was nothing I could do. Because I was weaker than Illumi, and always would be. Because like me, he'd been through years packed full of training since practically birth. But the difference was, he was eleven years older than me. Old enough that he could even hide his emotions on a general basis, not just pain, and not just during training or torture. Always. Never once had I seen him smile or cry, as long as I could remember, he'd been this way. Cold, emotionless. Heartless._

"_**Leave him alone!**_" I yelled, my eyes snapping open. Milluki looked at me, having stopped mid-swing with his whip. He looked confused, probably because he was about to hit me, not Killua.

"I'm not even hitting him! Honestly, if you're going to fake being asleep, do it right."

"I wasn't faking, fat-ass." I shot back, not missing a beat. I received a hit from the whip, but once again that made no difference.

"You never stopped talking in your 'sleep'. 'Illumi, Illumi. Killua. Stop it. Leave him alone.'," Milluki mocked. "You're so pathetic."

"You're one to talk. You're the second oldest Zoldyck child, and you couldn't survive a day of training if your life depended on it. You're a million times over weight, and all you do is sit around and stare at your computer screen and women! Seriously dude, you're a Zoldyck, have some priorities and earn yourself some respect!" I spat, and he hit me again.

"You have no room to talk. You managed to get yourself kicked out of the family, and you haven't had training in five years. Plus, you're just a_ stupid girl_."

"I stood up for what I believed in, and I don't regret it. The fact you note it so heavily just makes me prouder of what I did. I wasn't here to have training; not only were you trapped in this hell-hole, but you didn't even do what you should! And if girls are so stupid why are they the only thing you seem to like to look at, huh?" Several lashes. I had to admit, they hurt. But I didn't show it in the slightest. I could tell Killua was waking up, so I knew he'd help distract Milluki anyways.

Milluki never responded to me. I never said another word, he taunted Killua, and Killua taunted back, which amused me. Eventually our grandfather came in and told Milluki to let us go, Silva wanted us. This was after we were told Gon and the others were here, although I knew that, and Milluki pushed too far. Killua had broken one of his chains, startling Milluki a bit. Which of course just amused me, since I knew Killua wasn't the type to get mad and go on a blind killing spree. Killua and I got dressed, and this time around I was wearing a v-neck sleeveless black shirt with black slightly baggy pants, pockets up the sides, and some black boots. I walked alongside Killua, headed towards Silva's room, but Killua stopped, so I turned to look at him.

"Did you think I would kill you? Back on the airship, when you asked so much about what I'd do if I found my sister. Did you think I'd actually kill you? Is that why you never told me you were Ellilou?"

"No. I never thought you would kill me, and that's not why I didn't tell you who I was. No offence to you Killua, but I didn't know what they could have done to you. You might have tried to make me come home if you knew I was, that's all I could think. I never thought you would kill me though, I believed you on the airship when you said you wouldn't. Not much of me believed you would, it never even really occurred to me until you said you were going to kill your family."

"You never thought I'd kill you?"

"Of course not. You're my little brother. You'd never do that," I said, shocked to find myself hugging him, not carrying that there had to be cameras everywhere. I hadn't been able to do this, and I hadn't realized I wanted to until that moment. "Or at least... I hope you wouldn't. Because I wouldn't fight back, my life isn't worth yours. And it would probably come down to that, if a situation was bad enough to make you try to kill me. It was hard enough to fight you in the Hunter Exam..." Though he was a bit stiff, slowly Killua hugged me back.

"I would never do that." After a few seconds I released him, and we continued towards Silva's room like nothing happened.

When we got there, Silva had been waiting for us. I hardly paid attention to what he and Killua talked about, until he said my name. "Ellilou," I looked at him without a word. "You too. If you promise not to betray your friends, you and Killua can leave with them."

I was quiet for a second, then I nodded. "Alright." So after biting my thumb to make it bleed, he and I make the blood seal. Good thing I'd never dream of betraying Gon, and betraying any of his friends would be like betraying him. Killua and I stood up to leave, but Silva's voice stopped me.

"Hold on a moment, will you Ellilou?" I motioned Killua on, mouthing that I'd be there in a minute. He walked away after a second. " You're just a burden to them. Do you honestly think you should go with them? You're charity work in their eyes. I doubt they would honestly want to be friends with someone like you. You're not like Killua, you're incomplete. If you stay, you can be completed. Then you'll be worthy of friendship."

"Gon would never see me as charity work, old man. And you won't make me complete, you're the reason I'm incomplete in the first place. You're the ones who broke me. And in the end, when you've broke something, you can't fix it. Someone else has to fix it for you. And I know your _stupid_ methods. Your training will numb me, and then I won't want friendship anymore. You know this to, that's why you said anything in the first place. Now, you've promised to let me leave, so I'm going to leave. I don't plan on coming back. You disowned me five years ago, Silva. You have no rights to me."

I didn't give him any time to respond. I walked out, and I followed where I'd heard Killua go. When we reached the butler's quarters, I stayed outside for a second. "_You're just a burden to them._" Was he right? Was I just going to hold them back? I never did anything to keep them back, I never stopped them from doing anything. Or did I? Did I just not know it?

"Hey, where's Ellilou? Kurapika said she came up here with your brother earlier." Gon's voice said, sounding worried. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine, she was right behind me..."

"You're all dorks," I said, regaining my composure as I went inside. What was I thinking? They'd never see me as a burden, I _wasn't_ one. "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"How could you just stand out there and think when you knew we were worried about you! Don't you have the decency to-" Kurapika cut Leorio off by putting a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. I almost didn't have time to notice though, because Gon almost tackled me to the ground when he hugged me.

"Ellilou! I was worried, Kurapika told me you came up here while I was trying to get past Kanary. I thought they wouldn't let you go... I thought I'd have to find you. I was afraid of what they'd do to you while-"

I smiled and patted the younger boy's head. "Don't worry so much Gon. You know me, I'm stronger than I look. Calm down, okay? I'd rather not get knocked out 'cause you tackled me to the floor. You should know better than to freak out just because I disappeared."

"You never leave without telling me at home though... And with where we are..."

"I knew you wouldn't let me come up here if I told you they were calling for me. And you'd have every reason to try to stop me, so any argument I gave you wouldn't have been a very good one. So I figured I'd just go up without your knowledge to save us the trouble of a pointless fight, because it was unavoidable that I'd end up seeing the Zoldycks again. So I figured I'd get it over with."

"But you made me break my promise, to not let them take you."

"It's alright Gon, like you said; I made you. So technically, I broke the promise. All promises are two sided, whether it's an obvious two sides or not. So don't let me hear you blame yourself again. Got it?"

"But-"

"Gon. I'd smack you, but I think you've had enough of that for one lifetime... Or five..." I said, looking at the bruises on his face alone. "Anyways. I'm down here, and I'm allowed to be. I'm allowed to leave with you guys, so that's all that matters. Nothing besides that matters." Gon grinned and nodded. The butler didn't want Killua leaving, but in the end we left with him anyways.

As we left the front gate, I stopped. I felt chills go down my spine, then I heard _his_ voice. And it wasn't just in my head this time. "You shouldn't leave. You don't need friends. They'll only hold you back. You need to stay home and train. They don't care about you, and you do not care about them. You can't. You were raised to be an assassins, you'll never care about anyone but yourself, Ellilou."


	6. Stay or Leave X Goodbye X Into The Arena

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. Chapter six of The Taken Up Offer? Yep. I just want it noted it's now I start following the manga, even though before I used some of the 99 version of the anime and such. I'm going to leave the setting as anime for now though, since things are so similar and I don't want people ranting at me for using filler episode stuff in a manga-based story. So yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Leave me alone Illumi, this is my mind! You disowned me, you yourself threw me out! You scarred up the back of my neck, so I can even prove it! If you didn't want me gone, then you shouldn't have tossed me out! Now leave. Me. Alone!" I screamed, spinning around and glaring at my older brother, who stood behind me.

"You're too weak to fight me, Ellilou. There's no use. You know you should come home, you've let the eight years of training you did have go to waste. You've wasted back down to your brittle core, physically and emotionally. You can't even open the Testing Gate. It's time to fix that."

"Oh yeah!?" I growled, shoving past him. I slammed my hands into the door, opening the first four doors. I stepped back and let them slam shut. "So I can't open the gate, huh? What do you call that! If that isn't enough for ya, then tell me yourself. How strong am I?" I stomped towards him, making it to him before he could move. I slammed my fist into his chest, sending him into the wall the Testing Gate was made of. I hope it hurt. He slid to the ground, though he didn't react to the pain.

"That was uncalled for, Ellilou. This is exactly what I mean. You're emotions are erratic, you need to learn to control them. An assassin can not complete their mission if they can't control their emotions."

"It's a good thing I'm not an assassin then, huh!?" He stood up, and immediately my adrenaline washed away as some feeling came over me. With the feeling came fear, and now I couldn't move.

"You have no reason to leave. You don't need these people, they aren't your friends," You're just a burden to them. No. "If you continue to persist, I will kill them, and you and Kil will stay home."

"Y-You can't do that. S-Silva promised to let me and Killua leave, we have a blood seal. Y-You don't have the authority to take that back!"

"Do you really wish to fight me, Ellilou? Haven't I told you before, never fight an opponent stronger than you. Or have you forgotten that in your absence?"

"Leave her alone, your dad said she could leave! You have to let her leave, she's ours! You threw her out, you got rid of her! You didn't want her then, and you don't deserve her now!" Gon yelled, stepping between me and Illumi. I think he shocked us both, but I couldn't tell you. Illumi's expression never changes.

"G-Gon, don't. He'll kill you."

"I'd rather die than sit back and watch you be taken away! You don't deserve the torture they'll put you through, Ellilou. So you have to stay with us. You have the right to, even without the blood seal! But because he made that seal with you, Illumi has to leave you alone."

"You should listen to her, Gon." Illumi said calmly, slowly walking forward. He started raising his hand towards Gon. I felt my eyes widen, and I took a step back, managing to get a grip enough to grab Gon's shoulders and pull him back with me. "She needs to stay home and train."

"Why? You saw her, she got four of the doors open! That's thirty-two tons, that's more than any kid her age should be able to lift! You should be fine with that number, if I had a sister who could do that I'd bow down to her!" Leorio yelled, clearly outraged. Did _he_ care that much too?

"Illumi could open the first five doors before, which probably means he can open all seven doors now... So... I know you're trying to help, but shut up Leorio. I promise you your head doesn't take 254 tons of pressure to smash your head, slit your throat, stab your heart, or kill you by any other method that he could easily pull off right here without batting an eye, faster than light." I said quietly, looking at him out of the corner of my eye. "I'm going to have to stay. I don't plan on letting any of you get hurt because of me. Had I not gotten thrown out, it would have just been the four of you in the first place. I'm the add-on, due to my own actions. This is my battle... not yours."

As I stepped out from behind Gon, someone put a hand on my shoulder, I turned my head just enough to see who it was. This time, Kurapika was trying to stop me. "Don't talk about yourself like that. Had you not gotten thrown out, things could have went completely different. You never know what you did could have changed. Whatever it was, I can guarantee you we all like things they way they went better than they would have went had you not been by our side. You're not an add-on, you're just as important to the team as the rest of us are."

"Things would have gone better without her. Maybe there would have been less conflict, for example," Illumi said, sending chills down my spine as I looked his way. "I do recall a period of time where she didn't speak to you, therefore worrying Gon. Your Exam would have been a lot less stressful without her.

I was quiet, my stomach felt knotted. "He's right you know... And if I hadn't been in the exam, then maybe Killua would have fought someone he could have taken down. Then he would have gotten his license, and wouldn't have been matched up against Illumi. Without me there, Killua could have made a clean get away."

"Shut up, Illumi! You too, Ellilou! We all know Illumi would have found another way to make me come home, even if I didn't have to go against him! So the fact I went against you instead doesn't make a difference to the outcome! He probably would have just taken my license and broken it, so I couldn't replace it and couldn't take the exam again!"

"That's not a bad idea," Illumi said from behind me. I felt him swiftly reach in my pocket and take something out, and I turned around, knowing exactly what it was going to be. My Hunter's License. He started bending it. "Without this you won't be able to follow them to all the places they'll go to, you won't have access."_ This is your Hunter's license. It may not look like much, and in and of itself it isn't; outside of possessing various cutting-edge anti-forgery systems that make it's duplication impossible. It enables you to enter ninety percent of the countries and seventy-five percent of the areas for which access by the general public is restricted, even prohibited. Take care that it is not lost or stolen. _That's what they'd told us at the Hunter Exam.

_You cannot get it replaced. Your **first** priority as a Hunter is to protect your license._

"You've already failed as a Hunter, within a month of having your license. You've already had it stolen. What's worse is it's right in front of you, not being guarded, and you're not taking it back. I suppose you don't deserve it at all, I _should_ break it."

I growled. I swept my hand through the air, I had tried to grab my license but he was already behind me. "That's my license, Illumi! You give it back, now! If you break it and I need it as an assassin later, what are you going to do?"

"Hmm. I suppose you're right. I guess I'll just keep it for now." He went to pocket it, but at the last second it was whisked away. I saw it at the end of Gon's fishing rod and smirked. So not only had Illumi had his arm broken by a kid half his age, but he'd had something taken from him by the same kid. I was quickly by Gon, picking him up with one arm, Kurapika with the other.

"Get Layro, we gotta go!" I called to Killua, running towards the airships. Killua groaned and picked Leorio up, following close behind. I was sure Kurapika and Leorio were shocked at being picked up, and probably still shocked at our ease at picking them up, but all that mattered was we were putting space between us and Illumi.

Once we got to airport, Killua and I sat the others down. Gon grinned, used to my ability to just pick him up and go. Kurapika blinked hard and straightened his messy, wind-blown hair. I found myself giggling at what his hair looked like, but I lost it a Leorio's halfway afro. After they'd all adjusted their hair, we started discussing what we were doing next. I listened quietly as we came to the conclusion of splitting up and meeting at the York New City auction.

"Just let me know if he tries to take you again, Ellilou! I'll come back and show him who's boss!" Leorio said, clenching a fist in the air. I laughed quietly to myself, amused by the thought of Leorio trying to fight Illumi.

"You'll be the first person I call."

"In all seriousness, if there's anything we can help you, any of you with, just let us know." Kurapika said, smiling slightly.

"Hey, I was being serious!" No one responded to Leorio.

"I will, no worries. Good luck with... with everything, Kurapika." I said smiling at him, then Leorio. "You too. You better study hard, I'm going to be pissed if I had to go through the wrath of meeting you for nothing because you got lazy."

"Hey!-"

"Our ships are leaving in a few minutes, we'd better get going." Kurapika said, saving us all from Leorio's on-coming rant. Leorio grumbled as he started walking off. Kurapika smiled and waved once, before following him since their loading stations were close to each other. I watched for a second, and a thought washed over me. Though it was funny, did I really want to end our friendship with an argument if something happened to Leorio?

"Hey, Leorio!" I called after a minute, him being a fair distance away. He remained slouched over as he looked over his shoulder at me, raising his eyebrows. He still looked bitter though.

"Really though, good luck! You can do it!" I gave him a thumbs up and smiled. After realizing what I said, he straightened up and smiled back, returning my thumbs up. He continued forward, and Kurapika smiled at us over his shoulder before continuing on too.

"So where do we go now?" Gon asked, looking and Killua and I. I tuned out again, watching our two friends get further away. Some part of me actually was sad to see them go, I never really thought about the fact our time together might run out after the Hunter Exam was over. We all had different goals, so our paths were bound to split. What if Gon and Killua's split? Who was I supposed to go with. I heard Gon complain about Killua being unfair, but I was watching the airships take off. I felt tears in my eyes, I didn't want our time together to end. For the first eight years of my life the only people I knew were my family and the staff, and only Killua and Alluka were really worth being around. Not that I ever got to see Alluka much. Then I stuck to myself, minus Gon, Aunt Mito, and Grandma, on Whale Island. I was finally getting the taste of friendship most kids my age were getting sick of at this point, and I was watching part of it fly away right now.

* * *

"So, Heaven's Arena. You remember it, Ellilou?" Killua asked, looking at me in the seat across from him. I felt watched, so I was keeping on high alert. We were on the airship, so there'd be no escape if someone attacked. If someone attacked, it'd be an all out battle. But if it meant protecting my brothers, I'd win or die trying.

"Of course I do. It liked it a **_hell_** of a lot more than I did the estate, even though I had to kill one or two people because they were too stubborn during our fights... Heh. Some part of me wanted to just keep failing so I couldn't go home. I didn't lose too many matches though."

"You've been through Heaven's Arena too?" Gon asked, tilting his head.

I blinked, looking at him. "Of course i have. It's kind of like some... Zoldyck family tradition to go through it when you're young. Training. Are you really that surprised?"

"But... You were eight when you got kicked out, right? Killua went to Heaven's Arena when he was six-"

"So did I. He was there for part of the time I was, though I tried not to converse with him. I had bad blood there. People don't take it well when I kid three or more times younger than them can beat them as easily as she could squish a dead fly. I was afraid someone would use him as blackmail or pay back or something. When I got home... That's when I told them I was done with all of the assassinations. That's when i got kicked out."

Killua nodded to confirm such. Gon went quiet, which didn't surprise me. He didn't seem to like the whole Zoldyck-training thing. I can't blame him, I mean, I did get kicked out for the same reason. Hell, I'd praise him for it. He would have spoken up before I did. I sighed and looked out the window of the airship. Unlike Killua, I wasn't used to the view. I hadn't experienced it in years until the Hunter Exam, and something about it never got old for me. I always liked heights.

"Think we can whip through Heaven's Arena faster than last time?"

"Of course we can. Even though I haven't trained since, I was stronger in the end. If I was as strong as I was at the end of Heaven's Arena as I was in the beginning, I would have gotten through it in the most a year. Plus just because I wasn't home doesn't mean I wasn't improving my strength, mind you."

"Alright, alright. Don't get snappy. I didn't mean anything by it." Killua said sharply, and I looked at him, blinking.

"I didn't mean to get snappy... Sorry," I looked away, sighing. "Maybe I was 'home' too long."

"That wasn't home. Whale Island is home." I looked at Gon and smiled, nodding. He was right. The Zoldyck Estate would never be home to me, for the first eight years of my life I didn't have a home. Home isn't the house you live in. Home is where you belong, and I didn't find that place until I lived with Gon. Maybe that's why I was so protective of Gon. He showed me the way home.

When we got to Heaven's Arena, the line was unbelievable. Or it would have been had I not waited through it before. Once we got through it, our matches came pretty quickly. The three of us easily made our way up to the 50th floor; Killua and I were offered floors higher than that. Though I was twenty-seven floors above his. But we stayed back for Gon, we'd never leave him alone. Especially not here. We met a kid named Zushi, he was a pretty cool I suppose. When he asked us what school we belonged to, I was confused at first, but things soon cleared up. We met his sensei, Wing. After he'd told us how honored he was to meet self taught warriors. Could we honestly be considered that?

While we sucked down the drinks they gave us for our fights on the first floor, we discussed money. We were being paid small amounts of money for right now, but the money would multiply and add up as we went up the tower. Obviously, Killua and I were familiar with the concept. Gon and Zushi were amazed at the amount of money you would end up with in the end, and I personally hit Killua on the back of the head when he told us he spent all of it on snacks over the past four years. "You idiot."

"Oh yeah, well what happened to your winnings, Ellilou?"

"They're in my account. I put got it and put it there when I ran away, and since Whale Island isn't big on technology I haven't had much of a chance to use it. So I guess until we get money added up, I can help us if we need it. Though, if we all get 50,000 jenny on this floor when we win... I don't see us needing to dip into my savings too much. So no access use. And you're not getting my account numbers, Killua. I refuse to help give the world another Milluki."

"Hey! Don't put me on it's level, at least I exercise! Besides, I still don't eat enough to become that fat!"

"It doesn't matter how much you exercise when you go through chocolate robots like they're water!"

And then he decided to humor me. "What's water?"

Before I could react, I got called into my next match. I tossed my empty can at Killua and walked off without a word, ignoring his ranting about not being my servant. Down in the arena, I immediately recognized the guy I was up against from my last time through. I always memorized my enemies. His eyes widened the second he saw me. "You! You're that girl! The one who sent me in the hospital so long I couldn't renew my match! I'm gonna kill you!"

"What makes you think you can kill me now, if you couldn't even touch me then? Maybe you've trained, but I have too, just as much as you have. Plus the training I already had that topped you. You're no closer to beating me than you were before, You can forfeit the match if you want, I won't see any less of you. Wouldn't want to lose your progress here again."

"You little-"

"Begin!"

"I'm gonna gut you 'live little girl!"

"Too late." I said quietly from behind him. I twisted his arm behind his back, snapping it. Then I slammed my foot into his spine, in just the right spot. It hindered his ability to breath enough for me to karate-chop the back of his neck. I frowned, realizing the agony I put him through before knocking him out. I shook my head and walked away, convincing myself it was a one time thing. It wasn't going to happen again. I wasn't the heartless person the Zoldycks tried to make me. I wasn't now, I never have been, and I never would be.

Apparently Killua had fought Zushi. Zushi had used nen in the arena; Killua and Gon didn't know what it was. I stood with my arms crossed as Wing 'explained' nen to them. As they left, I stayed behind for a minute, opening my eyes. "I have to admit, watching my little brother clamber to the ceiling like a little scared cockroach was fun. But listening to them be lied to about their honest interests? About something they're going to need to know for this arena? Something they could get seriously hurt without? Not so much, mister. So next time they ask you about it, you better tell them the truth. Or you won't have the chance to teach any of your students anymore."

I left before he had the chance to respond. I didn't like my brothers - yes, I'm going to call Gon my brother from now on - being lied to. Not when there was no reason to lie. It's not like nen is a classified art or anything; millions of people know how to use it. So why did he lie to them? I'd have taught it to them myself, but I didn't realize they didn't know it. I also was no master at it myself, so I had no right to.

It didn't take us long to reach the 200th floor. Neither of us had been here before, so we couldn't answer Gon's questions. We were going down a hallway. Just an ordinary hallway. Or at least I thought so. I suddenly realized Gon and Killua were no longer next to me, but now were many feet behind me. "Come on you two, there's no time to play around."

"Don't you feel it, Ellilou?" Gon asked confused. I blinked, wondering what he meant. Then I realized, there was a very strong impulse of nen around us. One that seemed faintly familiar, one I'd felt recently. Not too recently, just within the last few months. It was full of blood lust. I turned to see one of the Heaven's Arena staff members, but it was obvious to me she wasn't the one putting it off. She looked at them.

"You're Killua and Gon. right? Registration is that way," She pointed around the corner. Your eligibility expires at midnight. So don't delay. There are 173 people currently on standby on this floor. As for the use of weapons, all restrictions are lifted."

"Is she doing this?" Gon wondered quietly, I probably could only hear because of my assassins ears. I was sure Killua would correct him, but I lost a sliver of faith in my brother at his response.

"Couldn't say..."

"There will be no more prize money. From here on, you'll battle for honor alone."

It's the time you've all been waiting for- Pedoclown time!

In all his glory, Hisoka came around the corner. Of course, having not changed much since the exam, he struck some sort of pose that made me wonder if his existence should make the entire world PG-13 rated.

"Hisoka!? What are you doing here!?"

"Why wouldn't I be? This is the spot for combat lovers, and I am practically an addict. The question is, why are you here? Actually, I know why. I've just been waiting for you. You used the internet to purchase your blimp tickets, so it was the simplest thing in the world to find out when you'd arrive. Though your friend here was smart enough to not buy her tickets with the same method; I wouldn't have known she was coming if I hadn't known how inseparable her and Gon were."

I stopped for a second and slowly turned to face the two boys. "You used the internet to buy your blimp tickets!? You idiots!"

Before they could respond, Hisoka continued. "I hung around the airport, then followed you. Though I figured you'd come here. Now... As your senior, allow me to warn you... You're not ready for this. So shoo! Leave this floor! Well, Ellilou can stay. I suppose she's eligible."

"I was about to sa- I mean don't talk so lowly of my brothers you little-"

"Brothers? But they aren't related. But you are Killua's sister, aren't you? You're Illumi's."

"Well duh. Seriously though, you couldn't have told yourself? We're a spitting image of each other. I'm surprised Killua didn't figure it out on his own... Then again... He was never the sharpest knife in the drawer- I mean leave them alone, Hisoka!" As the girl from before started coming back to her senses, Hisoka used a wave of nen aura to shove Killua and Gon further back.

"I see. Then take my advice, and come back later. Right now's not a good time."

"No way! We've come this far, we're not leaving!" Killua protested, and Gon nodded in stubborn agreement. I sighed, knowing neither of them would give up very easily. Though I didn't particularly want to get on my ex-roommate's bad side, I was sticking to what I'd said this whole time. To what I said even back in Trick Tower. I go where Gon goes.

* * *

**And in case you hadn't caught on Ellilou does call both Gon and Killua her 'brother/brothers'.**


	7. Hisoka X Nen X First-Time Failure

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. With another chapter of The Taken Up Offer. I'm getting really close to where I actually am writing, so my chapters will probably slow down now. But I will try to write and get chapters out as fast and productively as possible. I'm about to head out of town for about a week, so I wanted to get another chapter posted before I did. Especially since I had two people today alone follow it, more less other days. So uh. Yeah. I'm really glad you guys like and are enjoying this, I was really nervous about the reception it would get since people tend to seriously not like Zoldyck sister OC's. So, arigato!**

**Disclaimer: I STILL DON'T OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

"I mean it. You _**can't**_ advance anyway, right?" The two seemed somewhat horror struck as Hisoka forced them back further. I felt the strength of his nen increase, but it didn't affect me enough to freeze me; more less send me back. I watched them slide further back, then sighed and started making my way back towards them. "Ellilou. I told you you could stay."

"As much as a value your opinion, which is about as much as I value the dead skin under my nails, I'm sticking by Gon's side no matter what. So if you send them back, I'm going with them. Whether it's necessary or not, I won't leave Gon's side. I'll go through whatever he has to."

Wing's voice broke the silence that remained for a minute, immediately pissing me off. Just because he'd lied to them. "He's _**right**_, so don't try. You can't overcome his nen. He's nailed you cold, but you don't really know why. Fight him now, and the effort alone will probably kill you."

"Hey, I'm not-" Killua interrupted me.

"So _**this** _is nen!? He can stop us just by_** thinking**_ he can!? That's bullcrap!"

"I admit, I was not entirely_** honest**_ earlier..."

"You don't say..." I muttered, looking away from them, ignoring them for now. Instead, I averted my attention back to Hisoka, starting to walk his way. "So? Is that all you've got? Or can you send me back to? You've got to have something stronger than that, clown. That's weak."

"You're right, I can send out stronger. But it might break them. We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

'No, we wouldn't," I said, keeping my steps slow, revealing my malice towards him. "Let me just make something clear here, clown. You hurt Gon, and I will _**end**_ you."

"Hey, what about me!? Am I not a threat anymore!? And what if he hurts me!?"

"You couldn't hurt shit, Killua," I responded sharply, trying to let him know now was not a good time for one of his little chats. "And you can protect yourself."

I could just tell he was sweat-dropping behind me, I realized what I said. "How the hell does that work!?"

"Your warning is noted. At least it's short, and bittersweet. I'm not sure that I can obey it, though."

"You better _**make**_ sure clown, or I'll-"

Killua's voice interrupted me, immediately breaking my concentration. "Ellilou, come on! We're leaving!" Killua called, and I sighed.

"Ellilou? So that's your name. Illumi told me not to be bothered with it. Why did you hide your true name? The name Ellilou is so much..._ riper_ than the name Celeste."

"Because, I wasn't the fruit the Zoldycks planted." I turned and started walking away, muttering under my breath. "Creepy-ass clown..."

I pretended to listen to Wing as he taught them about nen, but apparently it was obvious I wasn't listening. Wing's voice was directed towards me. "You. Why aren't you listening?"

"I already know all of this. I learned it when I was five, my older brother taught me it for assassination missions. And before you freak out Killua, there were specifically missions that needed it that I went on." Wing raised an eyebrow.

"So you think you're a master of nen? Well enough not to listen to my lesson? Prove it. Show me your nen." I grinned, straightening up,

"Finally! I've been waiting for someone to tell me to do that ever since they asked you the first time!" Slowly I stopped using zetsu, allowing it to envelope Wing specifically. Slowly, the over-confident nen master's expression faded into fear. I slowly felt myself grinning, walking towards him at a slow speed that built a lot of tension. "Are you prepared for death, Wing? Do you have regrets? If you died right this moment, would you be happy with who you are? Would you be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say you saw a good man? I hope you can. You should have thought of this before you lied to Killua and Gon when they asked you the first time."

"Stop it, Ellilou! Ellilou! Cut it out!" Killua called, trying to break through my trance.

"Celeste, stop it!"

_"Celeste, stop it!" Gon yelled, not with anger or malice, just trying to stop me. He put his hand on my shoulder, looking at the small foxbear in front of us. "It's hurt."_

_"Exactly, it's not going to survive anyway. And I need to take my anger out on something, Aunt Mito made me mad... Getting on to me about table manners..."_

_"That's no reason to kill it! It could still survive, and it's not it's fault you had bad table manners! Or yours. So leave it alone! Please?"_

I immediately removed my nen from the room once I snapped back to the present, but I stiffened as Illumi's voice echoed through my mind once again. _You should have killed him. You had him right where you wanted him. You should never let your prey go free._

"_He wasn't my prey, Illumi. Now unless you have something productive to say, you know where the door is. Obvious I don't, or I'd lock it!_"

"Your nen is strong... But I'm not sure it's strong enough to fight everyone you could end up against," Wing said, recovering. Though I wasn't sure he was telling the truth, I felt like there was a good chance he was just trying to make me sound weaker than I am to 'knock me down a few pegs'. Too bad that would mean he was completely terrified of weak nen, if that'd been the case. "So you should pay attention to what I'm saying."

"I'll do just fine without your help, thanks."

"If you don't want my help, you can leave. I don't need to waste my time worrying about you being here if you're not going to listen to what I say."

"Listen here, buddy. I'm in control when it comes to where I go. I'm not going to have you telling me where I can and can't be. I'm going to be wherever Gon is, and I think you can already tell Gon's stubborn enough to keep himself here. So as long as he's here, you're going to have to deal with me. Unless you particularly liked the feeling of my nen-"

"Ellilou, drop it..." Gon muttered. "Don't get in trouble."

I sighed heavily, looking at the goody-two-shoes. "Whatever Gon."

As Wing went back to talking about nen, I tuned back out. I didn't need his help, if I could overpower him so easily there's nothing he could teach me. It was a good while until we headed back to the 200th floor, but we weren't late. Killua and Gon were able to walk much easier, and I could still walk through it just as easily as I could walk anywhere else. "Well, well. Welcome back. It appears you'll be able to skip the 'initiation'." Hisoka was waiting for us, and I wasn't surprised.

"We told you we would be. Do you take us as liars? Never mind, you're just stupid..." I muttered.

"Let's see if I can _**peg**_ why you came to Heaven's Arena. You're here to_** train yourself**_ to_** fight me**_, correct?"

"But I didn't expect you to be here too. Still, saves me some**_ trouble_**." Jeeze, was that coming from _Gon_?

Hisoka smirked. "You're up to speed on Ten, but _**don't get cocky**_. Nen has many facets." He changed the image coming from between his fingers in front of him from a spade to a skull. "You're still not_** ready** _for me, as you are now. However...if you win just _**one battle**_ on this floor, I might reconsider."

We continued on, and I heard people muttering about us being new. We went to registration for the 200th floor, and the lady explained that we had 90 days to prepare for a match before we actually had to fight in one. If we desired, we could do one every day, or wait until our last day. One match would earn us another 90 day period. If we failed to participate in a fight during that amount of time, we would be kicked out of the 200th floor. Gon was confused on the multiple-match concept, and she explained we had to win ten matches to pass, and if we lost four before that we'd be disqualified.

Complete the ten matches, you get to challenge a floor-master. There were the twenty-one highest ranked fighters in Heaven's Arena, and each got their own floor all to themselves. If you beat one, you got their floor and became a floor master. Once you become a floor master, you'd be eligible to advance to the top floor to participate in the Battle Olympia, "the Biennial Festival of Combat". The lady seemed upset with our disappointment in the "penthouse" and "prize galore". I guess the penthouse immediately lost my interest due to the time spent living on the Zoldyck Estate.

Gon showed absolutely no interest either, even though most 'glorious' things such as those normally excited him. He pointed out he only had to win one match for Hisoka to rethink fighting him, so he was going to try right away and see what he was up against. I sighed. "There you go again Gon. Don't you realize you could get hurt? I doubt Hisoka is the strongest person here, what if you end up against stronger and lose? Then not only do you probably rank lower in Hisoka's mind, but who knows if you'll recover in time to enter another one! You should get a feel of the people here first, watch some of the matches. Going in blind could be suicide!"

"I'll be fine, Ellilou! Don't worry, I'll be careful."

"Gon-" But it was already too late. He was already signing up for his next match. While Gon was signing up, and I was fuming, Killua questioned someone who I felt like was watching us as well. The man claimed that he and his buddies were there to sign up for a match, but I wasn't quite sure I was buying it. Gon let the man decide the day of their match; evidently they were going up against each other. Gon got room 2207, Killua got 2223. I got 2217. So go figure. We were rooms away from each other. At least it wasn't a drastic jump in number, or I'd have to punch whoever decided our rooms.

When we got to Gon's room, I felt even more pissed to hear he didn't intend to win. He just wanted to 'take a walk around the block'. I bit my tongue and headed towards the door. "Ellilou, where are you going?"

"I'm going to call Pokkle. See how he's doing. I need to talk to someone who's not a suicidal maniac."

"But, but, Ellilou-" I shut the door behind me and walked off, sinking into assassin speed to make sure they didn't follow. I quickly entered my room, and decided I would make what I said not a lie. I left a very short message on Pokkle's machine, stating to call me on the number I'd told him if he was free.

A little bit later my phone rang, and I smiled slightly as I picked it up. "Hello?"

"Ellilou, it's Pokkle."

"Pokkle, nice to hear from you. Glad to hear you got my message alright. We got Killua back, he's fine. And uh... I'll just go ahead and tell you I ended up going inside the estate and received some punishment for a bit, but that doesn't matter! Then the five of us split up, Leorio had to go off to be a doctor and Kurapika had some stuff of his own to take care of. So Killua, Gon, and I are at Heavens Arena, we're on the 200th floor."

"The 200th floor? I've heard that floor's pretty hard..."

"Well it is when you don't know nen- which I assumed you've learned by now." I continued after Pokkle's 'mhmm'. "But once you know it enough to get past the initiation... Which for us was held by Hisoka... You're alright. Well. Kind of,..All three of us have to win 10 matches without losing four times, and all within 90 day periods of each other, or else we'll be booted out. And I doubt the people on this level plan on playing fair. If any of them are like Hisoka..."

"I'm sure you guys will be fine. I-I gotta go, I-"

"Pokkle!" Someone's voice called on the other end of the phone. I wasn't sure why, but I felt myself frown slightly. I knew that voice, it was Ponzu. Why did that make me so unhappy?

"Alright, talk to you later. I'll let you know how things go." I said, hanging up the phone quickly. I sighed and laid back on my bed. I slowly felt myself smile. He was my friend too, just like the Kurapika and Leorio. Killua and Gon were my brothers, we were supposed to fight. Pokkle was my friend, and talking to him made me feel better. It helped me snap out of my current predicament. When it started getting near dinner time, I quietly walked out to the snack area. It was completely empty, so I tried to get in and out as quick as I could. My amazing luck was very present, as Hisoka appeared at one of the tables. I sighed and tried to head past him, but he followed me. I got us to my hallway, and realized I didn't want him either in my room or waiting outside it.

I sighed and sat my stuff down against the wall, making sure I didn't give any indication as to which room was mine. I looked at him and crossed my arms. "What the hell do you want, creepy-ass clown?"

"Well, I figured we could chat, without the boy and his friend around. That way, we could make sure we're clear with each other. Just because I don't deem them strong enough to fight me, you are. You're much stronger than either of them. So, tell me. Do you wish to fight me? Don't think about those two for a minute. Lets put ourselves in a world where they don't exist. Now ask yourself the question. Do you want to fight me?"

"I'm not going to bother imagining a world without them, because without them, my life isn't worth living. You all haven't gotten it yet, it's the biggest reason I'm so protective of Gon. He gave me my life. Without him, there's no way I would have wanted to survive. So without him, I wouldn't have made it to the point I am. Without him, you'd deem me unworthy of a conversation; more less a battle. As to otherwise; fighting you isn't on my agenda. I may not like admitting defeat, or weakness. But I'd rather be around to admit it, than be dead to realize it."

"So you aren't confident in your own fighting abilities?"

'I'm confident in my fighting abilities. I'm a lot stronger than any kid my age _should_ be. I'm way further than I have ever set a goal to be. But does that mean I'm strong enough to fight you? I'm hardly strong enough to survive a match against you period. There's no point in agreeing to being in a match you know you can't win. You'll never be strong enough to win if you set yourself back by injuries. That should be common sense for anyone. Even a normal person. Which means you should. Though I get the feeling you know it, but you don't obey it."

"You'll never know if you can win if you don't try, my dear. So tell me, why won't you face me?"

"Why do you want to fight me so badly? You know you'll get hell if you kill me, so it can't be malice. You don't... Look at me the way you would someone of romantic or sexual interest, so it's not that. So, what is it you want from me? Blackmail isn't a method that fits you, you wouldn't use me against Gon or Killua. You have no reason to feel threatened, so it can't be fear. So, _**what the hell is it**_!?"

"It's simple. I enjoy fighting the strongest opponents around me. And you rank up.. Hmm... Well, probably around the top twenty strongest of the people at my disposal. So, will you fight me? You keep avoiding the question."

"Because I thought the answer was obvious. No," I said simply. "And because you're going to ask me why, I've already explained. There's no use in going around getting myself into battles that I can't win. Injuries could put me behind Gon, resulting in us getting split up. Which I'm not going to allow to happen. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd highly appreciate it if you'd let me_** eat my damn dinner**_." I said, walking off. After I was sure he hadn't followed me I quickly darted into my own room.

Looking at that damn clown almost made me lose my appetite. Almost.

Since Gon's match wasn't until tomorrow, I had no intentions of talking to him or Killua again tonight. I wanted my point to get across; I hated how careless he was. Hisoka wasn't the only one who hadn't gotten it yet. Gon didn't understand how important to me he was either.

"Ellilou! Ellilou! Ellilou!" Someone called, knocking on my door. My eye twitched. Gon. "Ellilou! Ellilou! Ellil- Celeste!" I clenched my fists so hard my nails caused my skin to bleed just a little bit. I quickly wiped the tiny trails of blood away and stomped to the door, and I gave him a death glare when I opened it.

"What do you want, Gon?" I asked sharply, and he took a step back, looking somewhat scared. I realized why immediately and and blinked, snapping the malice out of my eyes. I would never really hurt Gon. Didn't he know that? I slowly walked out, putting my hand on his shoulder. "What is it, Gon?" I kept my voice a lot calmer and warmer this time, smiling at him.

"I-I came to see if you were alright. You seemed mad... I didn't want you mad at me..." I blinked, realizing the fear in his voice. It wasn't of me. It was deeper than that. I pulled him close, hugging him.

"I'm not mad at you Gon... I'm just frustrated. I wish you were more careful... What if something happens to you? You'll never find Ging if if you're not careful... And... And what am I supposed to do? I'll still have Aunt Mito and Great Grandma... but... I'm hardly close to them... I won't have anyone left if you die..."

"What about Killua? I think he wants you to consider him, he seems jealous to me when you talk about keeping me safe. You never mention him." I blinked, pulling away from Gon a bit.

"He does?" Gon nodded, and I remembered him yelling asking about him earlier. Was he serious? I never thought Killua would want me to protect him. He's the type of person who would complain and say I was babying him. Did he honestly care?

"But anyways, Ellilou. I promise, I won't let anything happen to me. So don't worry, okay?" Gon smiled brightly at me. Little brat. He always did that to me, you could never stay mad at him when he smiled at you like that. Or at least I couldn't, and neither could Aunt Mito. He forced me close to him again as he hugged me tight. I swear, that kid was sweet as could be. Even if he was psychotically suicidal. I shooed him off, telling him he needed to rest up for tomorrow's match.

I hate tops. I hate them a lot.

So the guy had unpredictable spinning tops. They could spin for hours, and even he didn't know what they'd do next. Gon was getting hit with the power of a sledgehammer by each top, and I was fairly sure he'd have chips in his spine at this rate. I listened to Wing's explanation, but to be honest I was too pissed to pay much attention. Killua had asked if I wanted to go into the arena seats with him, but we both agreed I'd probably go down and kill the guy myself if he hurt Gon that close to me. Of course, the idiot kid almost got himself disqualified by hopping out of the ring and not getting back in. But he got back in, and had a plan. He shot at Gido without getting hit by the tops.

Then the damn guy became a top himself.

What the hell!? How does that work!? You can't just change your fucking species! Is a spinning top a species? Probably not. Do I care? Definitely not.

He was slammed out of the ring, and only one point stood between him and defeat. I heard my idiotic brother yell he'd get dizzy. Shouldn't he know that was easily trained through? Wing commented he didn't know how to do what would be necessary to have any hope of beating Gido, and how he wouldn't be ready to for five years. "But he doesn't have five years to know how! He doesn't have five minutes!"

"You need to calm down, Ellilou. Getting worked up about this fight isn't going to get you or Gon anywhere." I narrowed my eyes at Wing, sending my aura around him. He froze. "S-Stop that."

"You sound like my brother. I don't like my brother. He's a cold, heartless bastard. You don't know me, and neither does he for that matter. You can't tell me what will get me where. You don't know how I go about things. I still don't like you, and if history repeats itself I never will. So don't dig your grave any deeper, buddy. Because I will kill you, and I will have no regrets." _That's right, Ellilou. Killing should come with no regrets_. I froze, though I didn't retract my aura.

_"Why do you seem so unsettled about this? You shouldn't feel regret about your assassination. You don't care about that person, you don't care about anyone but yourself." Illumi said to the five year old me, and I looked at him, shaking my head._

_"That's not true, Illumi! I care about Killua, and Alluka! I care about other people, I'm not like you!"_

_"You shouldn't care about anyone else, Ellilou. It won't get you anywhere, it will only cause you pain. And that will make you weak."_

_"L-Leave me alone Illumi!" I yelled, running past him, further up the hill towards the estate. We'd just gotten done with an assassination and were heading home, but the last thing I wanted was to walk with Illumi. I never wanted to. He always said things like that to me, like I was such a **damn disappointment**. Like I was worthless. I knew I wasn't though, I was worth more than he ever would. An emotionless shell of a human-robot was worth nothing, especially compared to someone who cared about things and had a mind of my own. Not one my parents created, like his._

"Ellilou stop it!" Zushi's voice pleaded, and I snapped out of my daze. I removed my nen and aura, realizing I had spread it further and it had started affecting Zushi as well. Wing looked pale, and now Zushi looked terrified. I felt bad about Zushi, but when I took a step towards him he took a step back. I could feel my eyes widen. What had I done? I scared the poor kid, I never wanted to do that. You don't care that you scared him. You care that you didn't kill him in time for him to realize he was scared.

"Shut up, Illumi!" I turned back towards the screen, to see the pain finally hit Gon and knock him out. I felt myself freeze, and watching him fall made me drop to my knees.

"G-Gon..." I was supposed to protect him. Instead, I was getting wrapped up in my own personal arguments and thoughts. I hadn't even seen everything that happened.

"He'll be fine. He just finally gave out." Wing said quietly. I couldn't move. I didn't, even as the room cleared out. Nothing I did could make my legs move, I didn't want to reach the hospital and here Wing was wrong. If I heard that, I'd break. _You shouldn't let your emotions control your ability to move, Ellilou._

"_Shut up Illumi. Now... is not the time._" I said, finally willing myself to move_ just_ to deflect his argument.


	8. Injuries X Forgetting X Fight for Pride

**Hey guys! Lunamon810 here, with chapter 8 of The Taken Up Offer. Just a warning, this (respectively, not just mistyped) switched in and out of first person (Ellilou's Point of View, obviously) and third person. There are lines to seperate the parts of course, but I just wanted to warn you. Obviously there are SOME important things that happen that Ellilou can't be around with and such, so yeah. But anyway. xD This is _very_ close to where I'm writing now (Because I was just going back and pulling the chapters I'd already written to here, so.) like I said I believe in the last chapter, so the updates will probably slow down. I'm gonna try to write on it a lot more so that I can get further ahead again, so I don't take ages to update. (My 44 chapter digimon story took a year because I wouldn't write for a few months here or there...) So yeah.**

**This chapter is potentially confusing, but it'll make sense later if you don't foreshadow now. (To some of my friends I know it'll probably be obvious what's going on, but others might not know. So uh. Yeah.) Anyways. Enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: I REALLY WISH I OWNED HUNTER X HUNTER BUT I STILL DON'T. SO.**

* * *

"Broken right radius and ulna, and a cracked humerus. Three rib fractures, and twelve cracks. They'll take four months to heal, you moron!" Killua scolded, bent forward in his seat as he glared at Gon. The only response the other boy had was to stick his tongue out at him, uncaring.

"Sorry!"

"Don't apologize to _**me**_! What's going on in there!?" Killua demanded as he started frantically poking Gon's forehead, eyes still a bit narrowed. "Huh!?

"Ow!" Gon said, finally managing to pull away. He rubbed his forehead, pouting at Killua.

"You saw all those guys who got initiated with nen! You were **_this_** close to ending up that way! You were lucky you got away with _**these injuries**_! Why do you think Wing warned us!?"

"Well, after I got hit a few times, I figured it wouldn't kill me." Gon said shrugging, though he figured he shouldn't do it again since it hurt. He grinned sheepishly. "All I can do it say sorry, Killua. It's not like I can fix it now."

"Well if you _have_ to apologize to someone, it shouldn't be me. It should be Ellilou. You know how much she worries about you, and you risked your life out there! I just hope she's alright, she's probably a wreck after witnessing the battle you went through. You know you've put my sister through a lot, not just tonight. The Hunter Exam, everything. But I think today takes the cake."

"She's _our_ sister Killua," Gon corrected, then he looked downwards a bit, bowing his head just slightly. "I didn't think about that when I was out there though... I should have... I shouldn't have been so careless... I should have known it would freak her out. I never meant to..."

Killua sighed. "She worries a lot about you."

"She worries about you too though Killua! You just don't see it! You don't see the way she looks at you, she _missed _you after she got thrown out, I know it! I think she wanted to be there to protect you." Before Killua could respond, there was a knock at the door. Killua huffed and stood up.

* * *

"Who is it!?" Killua demanded, opening the door. He saw Wing and I, and sighed, stepping out of the way. I was silent, following Wing in. Something felt wrong, but I figured it was just me worrying about Gon. Though I never stopped paying attention, trying to figure out _what_ was wrong. Well, not until I saw Wing hit Gon. I felt fury course through me the second I saw him draw his hand back, but I didn't think he'd go through with it. When I heard his hand make contact with Gon's skin, I growled and yanked him back. I slung him towards the door, and he just barely managed to keep his balance and not slam into it. He turned to look at me, looked pissed. He opened his mouth to say something, but I immediately interrupted him.

"_**It's time you leave.**_" I said, keeping my voice low. I used a tone Illumi had taught me to use when speaking to anyone who intercepted my missions. "Or else I'll have to make you leave_ myself_."

"Ellilou stop it!" Killua's voice broke through to my mind, and I suddenly found myself being slammed into the wall. "Your nen! You're going to suffocate him!" I held my head, it thumping from hitting the wall, turning to look at Killua. I growled, shooting up to my feet. No one was going to stop me from protecting Gon. Not even my blood brother.

"Didn't I prove to you at the Exam I can kick your ass-"

"Ellilou, stop it! Don't fight!" Gon interrupted. I looked at him, beaten and bruised. I felt my fury both fade and grow stronger at once, but after that I don't remember anything.

* * *

Ellilou left the room without a word, walking past Wing and Killua easily. There was something cold about the way she walked, silent. She even concealed her heartbeat and breath from being able to be heard by the average ear. Though they both concealed their worry, Gon and Killua both felt a strong wave of it. Killua knew Ellilou _hated_ using the skills they'd taught her to use, and found it unlikely she'd want to use them in a situation she could easily get out of on her own. Gon saw her eyes, and didn't think they looked right. Somewhat glassed over, as if she wasn't making connections with what she was seeing. Instead of showing his worry, Killua sighed, pretending to be aggrivated. "I'll go after her later." After some explaining from Wing as to why he hit Gon, Killua did follow her. He had assassins hearing, so hearing and tracking her wasn't an issue. He also wondered why she hadn't hid it from an assassin's ear too, since she knew he would be able to hear her. He had to go down to the bottom floor to find her though. "Ellilou, where are you going?"

"The Estate. It's where I belong." Ellilou said coldly, and Killua blinked.

"Ellilou what are you talking about? You belong here with us, me and Gon. You don't belong at the estate at all, you never have and you never will. Neither of us deserve what they put us through there, neither of us are going to. Is this because I got mad? I was just trying to prevent any fights, and I didn't think it'd affect you... I didn't think you cared what people thought, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I never should have told Silva I could survive on the streets. I can't. I'm weak, brittle. I'll break too easily, I shouldn't have left. I should have begged to come back, I should have stayed. I should have never met Gon... He makes me weak. You should have seen me after he passed out... I was a complete and utter mess. All of you... You weaken me. I can't stay here. I have to train so that this can't happen again." Ellilou turned away from him and started walking away, but Killua put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ellilou wait-" Ellilou's claws dug into his hand. He didn't flinch though, he immediately knew to deflect the pain. Or at least to pretend he was. "Ellilou, what's wrong? Did someone say something? Is it because Gon's hurt? Gon's going to be fine, you-"

"You need to let me leave, Killua. I need to train," Ellilou said sharply before she started walking away. Killua shook his head, hugging her from behind, mostly to get a grip on her. He made sure not to hurt her, but made sure she couldn't get away or move very well.

"Ellilou, is it because I couldn't save you? Is that why you're so upset? Is that why you hate me?"

* * *

"Is that why you hate me?"

"H-Hate you? I d-don't... Where... are... we..." I felt the ground falling out from beneath me. Killua tightened his grip on me, keeping me on my feet.

"Ellilou?" I couldn't respond, I was too weak. He sighed, picking me up so that he could carry me. "What happened?" I felt helpless. _Why?_ I was the older sister, he shouldn't have to be taking care of me. What had me so weak? Why couldn't I remember how I'd gotten where I was? The last thing I remember was him slamming me into the wall, and Gon telling us to stop arguing. I slowly opened my eyes again, looking at his. Our eye colors were almost matched, mine were just a little bit darker. "Are you okay?" Was he actually worried about me?

"I'm fine..."

"You're lying, you can't even stand... But... Why do you have to go home and train?"

"What do you mean? I-I'm not going back there!" I said, panic racing though me. Was he tricking me? He tightened his grip on me, and after I realized his heartbeat and eyes proved he wasn't lying I calmed down. "I-I don't know what happened... I just remember you slamming me into the wall, and Gon interrupting us..."

"You don't remember coming down here?" I shook my head, and he sighed. He started walking, still carrying me. I started to protest that I could walk myself, but I wasn't sure I could. I felt too weak to walk on my own right now. I absolutely hated it, he was my younger brother, not the way around. I'm the one who's supposed to take care of him. Our family may be backwards, but this is just too backwards. "I don't know what happened, but lets just hope it doesn't happen again."

"Can I hope something doesn't happen again if I didn't know it happened the first time?" Killua didn't respond, which worried me. I looked up at him, but he look back. "Killua?" I knew when he didn't respond this time I should just let him think, so I sighed and just let him carry me to my room. Though I hadn't known that was where he was carrying me. "Umm... Killua? Shouldn't I be in Gon's room?"

"No, you need to lay down and get some sleep. You're too weak right now to do anything anyways."

"But I have to know he's al-"

"_You_ need to know _you're_ alright first! I'm getting sick of watching you throw your own life aside every time Gon gets hurt or's in danger! You need to think about yourself once in awhile, Ellilou! If you're not more careful, you won't _be around_ to protect Gon! Even back at the Exam, you don't care what happens to you when Gon's in danger! Gon's my friend too, and I _don't_ want to see him hurt! But you're my_ sister_ and it hurts to see that you don't care what happens to you! Gon is going to be a lot worse off if he loses you than if he lost a limb! _**And so would I!**_" With that, I watched my younger brother storm down the hall and out of sight almost fast enough for me not to see it.

Was he really upset?

I went inside my room and laid down on my bed, deciding if he was actually worked up about it like that I should listen to him. I never wanted to cause him to worry, again, I was his older sister. I was supposed to help him, and I never was able to before. Now, it's like our roles were switched. I sighed, closing my eyes. I fell asleep, but I wasn't asleep long before Killua came back and knocked on my door. I felt better now, so it wasn't too hard to make it to my door. I opened it, and he immediately handed me a sandwich and a bag of chips. "You haven't eaten since breakfast."

I blinked. "Oh, you're right, I haven't. Well, you wanna come in, or-"

"I have a match scheduled. And no, you're not allowed to come watch. You need to stay here and rest. See ya." Before I could argue, he left again.

"Stop running like a damn assassin." I mumbled under my breath as I closed my door. I went back to my bed and sat up on it, eating the food he'd brought me. _Again_. Role. Reversal. When I finished, I realized no one ever told me how long Gon would be in the hospital or anything. I sighed, laying back on my bed after dusting the crumbs off of it. Surely _someone_ would come tell me what was going on with Gon. Either Killua would come back, or Gon would make someone give him a phone to call him.

Later, there was a knock on my door. The breathing pattern and heartbeat were familiar, but not in a personal sense. More like I knew it and had been around it before, and if I was right recently. Slowly I made my way to my door, not quite sure what to expect. I didn't care, as long as it wasn't Hisoka. I opened the door to see Zushi. I smiled, opening the door further and stepping out of the way. "Come on in, Zushi."

I frowned when Zushi didn't move. I then realized I was feeling nen again, and I stopped dead. Zushi knew better than to use nen unsupervised and unapproved by Wing. And that wasn't Zushi's nen. I contemplated closing the door, but I was fairly certain that was Zushi's body. You can't fake a heartbeat and breathing pattern. I couldn't just close the door and walk away like I didn't see anything happen. Zushi smiled, tilting his head slightly. "You need to sign up for a match, Ellilou,"

"Zushi..." I said quietly. "Alright, who are you?"

"Didn't you just say my name?"

"The name of the body, yes. The name of who you are, no. And from what I've seen, Hisoka can control people. So my guess is, you're the creepy-ass clown?"

"Wrong, my dear. You needn't know my name, unless you're going to battle me," Someone said, coming around the corner. He didn't look all that old, maybe around Leorio's age. He had slick black hair that laid against his neck, and dark green eyes. He was wearing a black tank shirt and black pants, so it wasn't hard to tell he had no weapons. I looked between him and Zushi. "Don't worry, dear. I'll release your friend. If you agree to fight me."

"Fine, I'll fight you. But that's really not much of a threat to me, more like a gift. You're not much of an opponent, it'd be a short match. You'd have one more loss, but I'd be a step closer to finishing here. So suit yourself, but you're letting go of my friend first."

"Wrong, dear. In so many places. First, I am much more of an opponent than you size me up to be. And second, I have the upper hand here. If you refuse to sign up for a battle with me first, then I'll keep your friend locked inside his own mind until you do. And if you think I'll give up and leave, you're wrong. I've had people trapped inside themselves for three years and seven months, and I could have gone longer. But the person I was blackmailing broke, and gave in."

"What makes you think I care that much about him? For all you know, I'm perfectly fine with him being forever unable to move on his own."

"We both know that's not true, darling. If that's how you feel, I can just leave. But you won't be able to find me, you don't know my name. Not many people know of my nen, and the ones that do won't speak of it out of fear I'll control them as punishment. So finding me and your friend would be impossible; he would eternally be a puppet. Is that fair? Your own greed and selfishness leaving your friend unable to blink or inhale for himself?"

I sighed. "Fine. Lets go sign up for a match. When will you release Zushi?"

"When you arrive in the arena. So I suggest we schedule soon. There's an opening today, a cancellation was made. Would you like to take it?"

"Yes, fine. Lets get this over with." We went to the desk, Zushi mindlessly following us. We made it to the desk, and both of us signed up for a match three hours from that moment. I looked at Zushi's glassed over eyes and sighed. "_Sorry Killua._"

_Is it really worth fighting for him? You don't even call him your friend. Not even Gon is worth fighting for. Yet you sign up for a match all because it would mean he lost control of his body if you didn't? Or is it because you want to fight? Do you want to kill him?_ I froze when Illumi's voice entered my mind, but I recovered after a second.

"_Yes, it is Illumi. Whether or not I know him well enough to consider him a friend, he's still an innocent kid. And I'm not just going to stand by while someone takes advantage of that. Sure, they're taking advantage of me now. But I can overtake him easily, shouldn't you know that? You had a hand in my training after all. And to answer your final two questions, no, I don't want to fight. But yes, I want to kill him. Not for the sake of assassination, but for what he's doing. And why he's doing it as well. You shouldn't use others to get what you want. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a brother to go apologize to._"

_This is making you betray Kil. Is it worth betraying him over?_

I was silent for a second. "_Shut up Illumi._" After that though, I did decide not to tell Killua. Besides, he might still be in his match. I looked at the man. "Can't you let Zushi go now? I won't withdraw my entry. If I do, you have my permission to control him, or me."

"I don't believe you, my dear. You seem close to that Gon kid, and I get the feeling if he asks you to withdraw you will. My goal isn't to end up with puppets, it's to end up with blood. And I get the feeling you wouldn't argue with him. You're not strong enough to protect him, more less fight him." With that, he walked away. I dropped the pin I was holding, my jaw dropping.

"Get back here you _**asshole**_!" I yelled, running after him. But he had Zushi stop in between them, turning to look at me.

"Don't Ellilou... What if he decides not to release me because you attacked?" I growled, my stomach turning. I was going to_ kill_ him in the arena. _See Ellilou? You want to kill, it's your biggest desire._

"_Fine, whatever you say Illumi. If it being my biggest desire helps me kill him, then **hell yes**. It's my biggest desire._" Since there was no more commentary from the robot, I stormed back towards my room. But as I reached my room, I realized Hisoka was in the hallway. I glared, the urge to kill still fresh on my claws. Do I like it? No. But I was raised to want to kill, so sure. Some part of me does. But only when there's a good reason, and that's normal, right? "What the _**hell**_ do you want, creepy ass clown? And don't tell me it's a battle, because I just was forced against my _**damn**_ will to sign up for one. So I am _**not**_ signing up for another one right now. I'm probably going to be murdered by my brother afterwards anyways, so I wouldn't get to fight you anyways."

"No, that's not why I'm here. I was just wondering why Darris was here. But I guess I know now. He was controlling the child, correct?" I nodded, gritting my teeth. "That's his nen, he is a specialist. He just has to nick someone's skin, just enough to make the tiniest cut, and he can use his nen. You should be careful around him."

"And you're telling me this because? I don't do 'owing' people, so since I didn't ask for the information, I will not be doing anything to repay you. Got it?"

"Just trying to keep you alive. One day you will want to fight me, so I have to keep you alive until then. Just like I have to keep the boy alive until he's_ ready_ to fight me."

"I'd rather _die_ than let you fight Gon outside this arena. He won't be ready enough for you here, so it's not worth fighting over. You won't put your all into it, you won't kill him. But after this arena, I won't let you fight Gon."

"I don't believe it's your choice my dear. But if you wish to die protecting him-"

"You can't overpower me, Hisoka."

"I can't?" Suddenly, I backed up against the wall. Or at least my body did. I didn't. "Do you feel in power right now?" I was frozen. I couldn't move at all, not out of fear. I just_ couldn't_ move. He wasn't even touching me. He started walking towards me, putting one hand against the wall just next to my head. I wanted to run, I wanted away from him. But I couldn't move at all.

"Leave me alone you pervert!" I yelled, hoping someone could hear me. But if anyone heard me, they didn't care. Because nobody came. No one was going to rescue me this time. But since when was that anything new?

"Maybe I will, if you battle me. Then we'll know if you'd be able to protect the boy, wouldn't we?"

"I will never fight you." I said, keeping my voice low as I glared at him, looking him in the eye. He grinned and brought his face closer to mine, stopping when his nose was about an inch from mine. And let me just tell you, in case you couldn't already predict it, I did _not_ like it.

"Then I won't be letting you go, and you'll miss your match. Which means that little friend of yours becomes a puppet of Darris," The feeling of his breath on my face made me want to scream. "You can't get free on your own, my dear. I have to free you. I could keep you forever, if I wished. Then who would protect Gon? So unless you agree to fight me-"

"Let me do my match today. If I get hurt, we'll have to postpone the match until I heal up, so you can get the match of me you desire. Alright?"

"Very well, my dear," Hisoka said, leaning slightly closer before pulling away, succeeding in freaking me out. I didn't let my panic show though, that would just please him. As he pulled away, Killua came around the corner. He was obviously about to attack Hisoka, but he disappeared with a puff of smoke. I looked at Killua, and he looke thoroughly pissed. And not just at Hisoka. I sighed and went into my room, leaving the door open since he'd inevitably follow me. Suddenly, I felt a hand slam into my back, and I hit the floor. I slowly pushed myself up to look at him as he slammed the door shut.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, signing up for a match after what happened earlier!"

"I had to asshole! Darris threatened to make Zushi his puppet forever by using his nen if I didn't sign up, I didn't have a _**damn**_ choice! Or would you have prefered me to have turned my back on Zushi!?" Killua blinked, seeming to calm down a little bit. He reached down and helped me up, looking me over to make sure he hadn't hurt me.

"I'm sorry... I just... I thought you ignored everything I said earlier... But... Anyways, what was going on in the hallway? With Hisoka?"

I was dead silent for a second. How could I tell him? I took a deep breath, preparing to have to block attacks from him so I could fight in my match against Darris. "Hisoka threatened to do pretty much the same to me unless I signed up for a match with him, either after mine with Darris or after I heal from injuries I get from it."

Killua's eyes flashed back to fury, so I braced myself with my forearms in front of my face. But after a few seconds I realized the hit wasn't coming, so I lowered my arms. He put his hands on my shoulders. "Ellilou, you can't fight Hisoka. _I_ can't fight Hisoka, and I've had more training than you. With all due respect, you're not strong enough. You'll get killed, or close to it-"

"I know but... If I refused and just let him control me forever... Who would protect you and Gon? If I get killed, then at least I tried to protect you guys... And if I don't, I recover from my injuries and can still protect you. At least I didn't sit back and not even try because of my own safety. I would never do that to you guys."

"Ellilou..." Killua was quiet for a second, which made me really wonder what was going through my younger brother's head. "Your safety needs to be your first priority. But being controlled by Hisoka forever wouldn't have been any safer..." Killua sighed, and shocked me quite a bit by hugging me. It took me a second, but I slowly hugged him back. "I"m sorry I wasn't there to stop him."

"It's not your position to, I'm _your_ older sister-"

"That's not the point, age doesn't matter. We're family, Ellilou. I know our family isn't exactly the model family, but family should protect each other. And I wasn't there to protect you, and I wasn't there to be protected, yet you still found a way to."

"Killua..." I sighed. "I know we're supposed to protect each other, but I've never been able to protect you before. At home, Illumi always stopped me, and then I was gone for years... I... I've gotta get going to my match." I couldn't have feelings fogging up my mind during my match. I headed towards the door, but Killua managed to grab my wrist in time to stop me. His grip didn't hurt, but it was firm enough to keep me there. Stupid training.

"Ellilou I watched you get _**tossed** _out the door and thought I'd never see you again. I'm not going to let you just _**walk**_ out it with the same thought in mind. These people are experienced, you saw what happened to Gon! You could get killed out there, don't you _**get that**_!?"

"Of course I do Killua... But this guy tested and taunted the one thing he shouldn't test or taunt. The limits I'm willing to go to protect Gon, and you." I managed to twist my wrist out of his hand, continuing forward. I stopped in the doorway, raising my hand to about my shoulder, transforming my nails to claws. "And _**I'm**_ experienced too."


	9. No Mercy X How I Was X Lonely?

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here! With the next chapter of The Taken Up Offer. This is litterally as for as I've written, so the story has caught up to what I'm writing officially now. So things will probably slow down a little bit. xD I know I just uploaded a chapter, but I had to get this one uploaded. Don't ask why, I don't even really know. Anyway, enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER**

* * *

I didn't give him the chance to stop me again. I hit assassins speed and left, I wasn't going to let him stop me. I couldn't. Poor Zushi, who I'd tortured with my nen, he was counting on me. I couldn't let him down. I'd never be able to forgive myself if I knew I'd just let his life go like that, as if it wasn't important. Everyone's life was important, if you'll let it be. He wasn't even old enough to make decisions that would make it important yet. I couldn't let his life go to waste because of me.

By time I entered the arena, I was fueled full of anger. I saw Darris enter the arena, and it was all I could do not to bolt across and tear him limb from limb. I managed not to though, and waited for our match to begin. Immediately, I felt like a mosquito bit the area just behind my ear. I rubbed the area absentmindedly, but let it go as I shot towards him. He seemed shocked to see I moved, which made me wonder what he thought he was up to. I slammed him into the ground head-first, swinging him up into the air by his arm before kicking him in the stomach across the arena. I shot toward him again and pinned him to the ground on his stomach, twisting his arm behind his back like I had the guy at Heaven's Arena. Except this time, I kept going until I heard the crack. I twisted it in the other direction, then jumped up and kicked him onto his back. I growled.

"Why... Isn't it... Working..." He struggled to speak, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are you... under the influence... of another manipulator?" I blinked, stopping. What did he mean? I decided I couldn't stand there long, so I jumped up man meters into the air, flipping so I'd land on my hands, lacing my fingers together palm-down, and slamming down on his stomach full force. I was fairly certain that completely ruined one of his lungs, but who knew. He looked like I'd smashed all his organs. In one quick movement, I snapped his ankle like I had his arm. As I sharpened my claws to stab him, the referee stopped me.

"Stop it, kid, I said you won!" I finally realized the words I'd been hearing shouted over the intercom. I'd already gotten the points I needed to win the match. I had let my fury carry me on past it. I didn't stop when I was told, and I was fully prepared to kill him right then and there. I still wanted to even after I came to this realization. _No one_ questions my ability to protect my brothers. But I knew if I kept going like I still wanted to, I would get in trouble, so I backed away from him a little bit, then I looked him in his eyes. He couldn't hide his pain like I could, but he was so inexperienced in fighting that I didn't need to. I didn't have any pain _to_ hide.

"Believe I can protect him _**now**_? This is why you shouldn't have challenged me, Darris. This is what I wanted to prevent for you. Too bad you didn't want it bad enough for yourself," I said coldly, but then I smirked somewhat sadistically. "And I doubt _wanting_ your limbs to heal back correctly does much. Oh well, it was your choice. See ya later." I finished, turning and walking away from him. If I wasn't sure it would get me in trouble, I'd have killed him anyways. Then again, that could have screwed up Zushi or something. Zushi. Crap.

I raced out, searching and scanning the crowds. That asshole _better _have kept up his end of the deal. He wanted a fight, I gave it to him. I never promised he wouldn't get hurt. I finally found Wing, who looked like he was scolding Zushi. As I got closer, I was able to tell which voice was his in the crowd. "If you don't want to learn, you can go home. You can't just leave like that, especially not just to watch a match!"

"But-"

"I don't want to hear it-"

"**_I_** don't want to hear it, Wing! Maybe if you'd take a minute to listen to your pupil, you'd know he was under the control of that nen user named Darris that _**I** _just fought. He was using Zushi as blackmail against me, he said if I didn't fight him he'd make Zushi his puppet **_permanently_**. So how about you listen to your damn pupil and get your head out of your ass!" I yelled, clenching my fist. "I swear, it's people like you that deserve the receiving end of that match!"

Wing looked shocked at me, though I wasn't sure why. Shouldn't he know this is how I am by now? I growled, turning to walk away, fists still clenched. "You fought to protect Zushi?" I stopped and turned to look at him, relaxing slightly. I nodded, and Wing looked at Zushi, then back at me. "Thank you, Ellilou."

"Thank you." Zushi echoed, nodding. I smiled and walked away without another word. I realized as I made my way up to my room I had to sign up for a match with Hisoka immediately now, because I hadn't gotten hurt. When I reached my floor Hisoka was waiting in the hallway the elevators opened into, and he stopped leaning against the wall as soon as he saw me. I followed him in silence down the hallway, though I could tell Killua was following us. He must have been waiting too.

"_Don't do anything stupid, Killua..._" I thought, worried. I remembered how mad he looked when I told him Hisoka was going to force me to fight him, and I was worried that he might attack Hisoka and try to make him withdraw his demand. _"Even you said you can't fight Hisoka. So listen to your own damn words, and let me take this battle. It's not yours to fight._"

I followed Hisoka to the desk-area-place, and signed up for our match. Of course, the asshole signed us up for tomorrow. So I didn't have very much time to train. I didn't say a word to Hisoka the whole time minus asking when we were fighting, and I turned to walk away. But of course, I can't just walk away when it's Hisoka. "Ellilou, may I have a word with you? Privately?"

"Depends on where you consider 'private', Hisoka." I said sharply, looking at him out of the corner of my eye, over my shoulder. He motioned me to follow, and we ended up in some hallway. The fact that Killua was following us was both comforting and terrifying, considering Hisoka could over power him if he tried to attack.

"Darris hasn't lost a match on this floor before. His nen is almost completely undefeatable, impossible to defend against. How did you do it, without even knowing how it worked?"

I blinked. "Darris tried to use his nen on me? I didn't feel anything..."

"He used it once on me, to show me how it worked. It feels like a mosquito bite, normally just behind your ear," I rubbed the area where I'd felt the mosquito bite earlier. "How did you deflect it?"

"I didn't know I was deflecting anything, I didn't know he ever tried to use his nen on me. So I don't know how. Maybe he was just over-using his nen or something. Maybe he needs to shrink his puppet collection a bit. Hell if I know. Can I leave now?"

"Are you under the influence of another manipulator?" I stopped for a second, staring at him.

"Not that I know of."

"Hn. Alright, you can leave." I twitched, but instead of snapping at him and being murdered for it, I turned around and walked away. After we were a safe distance away, I stopped.

"Killua, you can come out now." I heard Killua sigh irritably as he came out from around the corner behind me.

"How long did you know I was there?"

"Since I got off the elevators," I said, continuing to walk. He ran to catch up with me, then walked by my side. "Thanks. For... Ya know. Watching out for me." I said quietly, sorta ashamed that my little brother felt the need to protect me. Killua just nodded. "So... You... You saw the match?"

"You were mad-"

"I lost my mind out there... I let my anger get in way of my common sense. Illumi may be an asshole and wrong in a lot of ways, but he's right. You shouldn't let your emotions rule you all the time, and that's what I did out there. I let my anger take control of me."

"It's not your fault, Ellilou. He talked about things he had no right to talk about, you were right. He shouldn't have tested you when it came to your ability to protect me and Gon. He also brought an innocent bystander into it, Zushi. He shouldn't have done that. You're the kind of person who can't stand that kind of injustice, that's what got you thrown out of the family. You didn't think those people deserved to be assassinated. It's who you are, you fight for the odds that can't help themselves."

"Funny how my argument five years ago was completely deteriorated by that match. I almost killed that guy-"

"Yes but Ellilou you had a reason other than money, he deserved to die! Your argument was the people we were assassinating didn't have a reason to die, they hadn't done anything bad enough! But he taunted you, he controlled people! I bet he's done a lot worse too, I'm sure he's killed people too. It's how things work, an eye for an eye-"

"Makes the **damn** world go blind! Just like I was out there," I said sharply, reaching my room. "I've got to rest, I have my match with Hisoka tomorrow, remember?"

"Don't you want to see Gon?"

"Didn't you tell me I needed to stay in my room and rest earlier? You told me not to go see Gon until I was better."

"I think you need to see Gon after that match. Come on." Killua said, grabbing my hand has he walked by me, pulling me along with him. I matched his pace as we headed towards Gon room. Maybe he was right, maybe I did need to see Gon. Maybe he could calm me back down, clear my head out. He was always good at that.

_"Celeste! Celeste, calm down! Celeste your hurting it!" My hands were wrapped around a small blue bird, I never bothered to learn the name of the species. They were all over Whale Island. It had landed on my jacket and ripped it up with it's claws that had gotten caught. That jacket was the last thing I had from the Zoldyck Estate, and the only reason I hadn't ripped it up was I had good memories of it and Killua. Like when he and I were returning home from an assassination mission and his jacket had gotten ruined, so he was cold. So I took mine off and laid it on his shoulders, and it was one of the few times he looked at me and smiled. One of the few memories that kept me from trying to forget the Zoldycks entirely._

_"Celeste!" Gon put his hands over mine, and just knowing he was standing there somehow calmed me down. Gon was my little brother now, I couldn't call Killua that no matter how bad I wanted to. I'd been disowned by the Zoldycks about seven months ago. I couldn't go back now. My grip slowly loosened, and Gon gently formed my hands to cup the bird. I'd broken it's wing, and it was chirping in pain. I felt tears come to my eyes._

_"I'm sorry..." Any other time, I would have never recognized the shaky, quiet voice that came out as my own. Gon hugged me from the side, so he didn't hurt the bird. I didn't talk much, so I guess the fact I said I was sorry to a bird that couldn't understand me helped him understand I meant it. He smiled at me and used his thumb to wipe my tears away._

_"It's gonna be okay! We'll bring it to Aunt Mito and she can fix it!" I handed him the bird, and he looked confused for a second._

_"She'll yell at me. I'm gonna stay out here... You bring her the bird." I said quietly, and Gon pouted._

_"Aunt Mito won't yell at you. That jacket was one of the few things you had with you when you came here, your parents gave it to you, right? I'm sorry." I felt tears in my eyes again, but I turned away so he wouldn't see them. I just nodded. "Come on, it'll be alright!"_

_"Still, I'm gonna stay out here..." I walked off deeper into the woods, and I heard Gon call after me. But I guess he brought Aunt Mito the bird, because he never came after me. I went to a small river that went through the middle of the woods, sitting beside it. It was slow moving, so I aimlessly tossed rocks for a while, until I got bored. It started getting dark soon, but I didn't care. I didn't even move when my stomach growled. I knew I'd be in trouble for staying out late, but maybe I could just runaway. then I wouldn't get yelled at._

_It'd been fully dark for about and hour when I heard Aunt Mito and Gon calling for me. Aunt Mito's voice went one direction, but Gon's went another. One closer to where I was. I considered running, but Gon would be able to follow me either by sound or smell. I hugged my knees closer, waiting for him to find me. When his voice came behind me, I felt someone hug me from behind a moment after. "There you are... We've been looking for you... I thought you'd come in sooner or later but..."_

_"I'm sorry," I said quietly, my voice sort of hollow. "I didn't mean to worry you."_

_"Celeste..." Gon said quietly, hugging me closer. "You missed dinner."_

_"I know."_

_"Aren't you hungry?"_

_"Maybe... I don't know." I could tell Gon was pouting by the little bit of his face I could see from the corner of my eye. He stood up, then pulled me up onto my feet. He grabbed my hand and led me back to the house, where Aunt Mito had returned to. She looked furious with me._

_"Celeste! You should know better than to stay out after dark! I thought I'd raised you better than that, you-"_

_"You didn't raise me! Not until seven months ago. My parents did!" I said sharply, though I quickly lost my spark and returned to the more confined stance I had._

_"If you're going to snap than you can go to bed without dinner. It's bed time, both of you. Go." I felt like the hollowness of my stomach got worse when she said that, but I reminded myself I had training to last at least a month or two without food, so I would be fine. Since Gon hadn't expected me to move, his grip was lose. That made it easy to simply pull my wrist free, and head inside. I went upstairs, got changed into my usual tank shirt and shorts that i slept in, and laid down on my bed parallel to Gon's._

_"But Aunt Mito! Celeste is hungry, you can't just not feed her! Come on!"_

_"She needs to learn from her mistakes, Gon." I stared mindlessly at the ceiling as Gon continued to fight for my food. I didn't deserve it, so why should I get it? He had no reason to be arguing with her over it. He would just get in trouble too._

_"But Aunt Mito! Come on! You can't just take food away from her, that's bad for her health! If you're going to punish her, you should at least do something that won't hurt her health! And she was just scared of you getting mad at her, Aunt Mito. She thought you'd yell at her because of the bird, she didn't want you mad at her. When she told me to bring the bird to me, she said she didn't want to come in because she didn't want to get yelled at for hurting it's wing. That's why she didn't come home!"_

_Aunt Mito sighed. I didn't hear them say anything else, but a few minutes later I heard Gon coming up the stairs. He nudged the door to our room open with his foot, and came over to me carrying a tray of food. He turned on the lamp and smiled at me, though I remained laying on my back. "Aunt Mito said you can eat, so here!"_

_"But I need to be punished... I didn't come home before dark..."_

_"Come on, Celeste! You'll get sick if you don't eat right! I know you were worried about getting yelled and and stuff but... But Aunt Mito isn't mad! So you don't need to worry! You need to eat!" I sighed, knowing fighting with him would do me about as much good as it did Aunt Mito. I sat up, sitting on the side of the bed so that my feet almost touched the floor, and started eating the soup and bread she'd sent up. I smiled slightly as I felt my stomach filling up. Just because I could deal with starvation, didn't mean I liked the feeling. Gon stood and smiled, watching me while I ate. When I finished I looked at him and smiled a bit more. When I finished I stood up and headed downstairs, where I encountered Aunt Mito in the kitchen._

_"Celeste. You shouldn't have been worried about me being mad about the bird. I'm still not mad about the bird. That jacket meant a lot to you, it's all you have left to connect to your parents. Gon brought it to me, I can patch it up. It won't look quite as nice, but it'll still be recognizable. I'm only mad because you didn't come home, you worried us. I could tell by the look on Gon's face that you never left his mind. So next time, just come home before dark. Okay?" She said smiling, patting me on the head. I smiled slightly and nodded._

_"Okay, Aunt Mito." I went back upstairs, to be immediately hugged by Gon as soon as I entered our room. He didn't seem to have any intentions of letting go, and to be honest I was okay with that. I smiled a little bit and hugged him back, hugging him close. "Thank you, Gon."_

As the memory finished running through my mind, we reached Gon's room. Killua opened the door for me, and Gon looked at us, grinning immediately. "Hi Celeste! Hi Killua!" I immediately ran to his bedside, hugging him, careful not to hurt him.

"I'm sorry..." I said quietly, unable to release my younger brother. He hugged me back, and I could tell he wanted to make me feel better. I was terrified of moving and hurting him, but I doubted I would have let go anyways. "I shouldn't have let you fight... I should have tried harder to stop you... I could have if I'd really tried..."

"Nah! You couldn't have stopped me. It's not your fault Ellilou, no matter what that would have happened my first match. It had to happen at some point. Now I can recover and move on, and now I know more about how I need to fight out there! Now I can make real progress." Gon said, and I could just tell he was grinning. He was way too strong for his age, just like I was. Probably from his training at the estate when we went to save Killua, and his undeniable stubbornness. I realized then, even then I was dead weight. I went in and had to be saved myself.

"The only people I've met before who can just shrug off pain like this are the Zoldycks and a few other assassins I worked with... I hate the thought that you've been through enough to be like us." I said, and I felt him start rubbing my back, which is what he did a Whale Island to calm me down.

"It's okay, Ellilou. I haven't been through things as bad as you, just specifically what made you able to endure. Kind of, I'm still not as good as you are. I've seen you go through a lot of things at Whale Island, you've been scraped up pretty bad, stung, bitten, attacked by animals, but you never cried or screamed or anything Ce-llilou. So-"

"I know... I know..." I said quietly, slowly pulling away from him so I could look him in the eye. "It's still more than I'd ever have wanted you to go through though... So I'll just have to make sure you go through as little as possible from now on."

"But that'll have to wait until after I get out of here, because I'm not stopping until I beat Hisoka. No matter what I go through." Gon responded, smiling at me with the look in his eyes that told me he honestly cared and appreciated that I wanted to protect him so badly, but he wasn't going to let me step in the way of his goal. I sighed in defeat, knowing very well there was no use in arguing with him. I looked him in the eye.

"Alright, fine. But after we leave here, it's my job to protect you again. _**Understood?**_I'll let you fight Hisoka, and I'll let you fight the other matches you have to here. But after we leave, I won't allow you to throw you life away like you're trying to here. Because **_damn it_**, your life is more important to me than my own is!" I turned out of his grip, stepping away from the bed, my fists clenched at my side. "Without _you_, I _would_ have starved on the damn streets! You saved my life, and it pisses me off that I can't save yours!"

"But Ellilou, you've saved my life before! You've always protected me, you've over-repaid me! You didn't need to repay me in the first place, I'd never want anyone to look as lonely as you did." Lonely? I looked _lonely_? I turned to look at him.

"What the hell do you mean, lonely?"

"I mean when I first met you, when you were wandering around Whale Island. You looked really lonely, you looked like you were searching for someone but you didn't know who. You looked that way for a long time after words too, you still look like that sometimes. Sometimes... I wonder if you even trust me and Aunt Mito."

"Of course I do Gon. I trust you two more than anyone-"

"I know that! But that's the bad part, because you trust us the most. You don't seem to trust us a lot most time time... So that means your amount of trust is very small. I wish you had more people you could trust. And I wish you would realize you can trust me and Aunt Mito."

"Gon, I'm telling you. I trust you and Aunt Mito, a lot. I would trust you two with my life. Hell, I have-"

"No you haven't! You took care of yourself a lot back on Whale Island. You went off on your own a lot too. Even when you were with me, you were quiet. It was like you weren't with me at all. Then at the Hunter Exam... I saw you when you looked at Killua. It was like you were searching again, but you knew where who you were searching for was. You were just trying to see if you _should_ search. You also kinda looked like... you were hoping they would search for you instead. But it was so subtle, I didn't ever think it was Killua, I didn't even make the connection it was only when you looked at Killua until_ after_ the exam."

"But I wasn't looking for Killua, I was hiding from him. Remember? I never _told_ him I was Ellilou, I never hinted it. I tried my damnedest to _hide_ it. I wanted nothing to do with him or the family." I looked over at Killua out of the corner of my eye, making sure I wasn't hurting him by saying that. He seemed to understand what I meant, so I closed my eyes again.

"That's because you were_ scared_," I slowly turned to look at Gon. "You didn't want to go home, you were scared of going home, and you had every reason to be! I didn't understand then, I was confused why you looked scared all the time. Again, it was subtle. But I knew how you usually looked, and I knew how you looked now didn't look right. I didn't want you to be scared, but I didn't think I should ask... I didn't want to make you talk about it."

"Do I still look scared?" I asked quietly, looking at him. I didn't think my opinion of anything changed, so did I still look scared?

"Not like you used to. Mostly just when things are quiet, I think it's because you get deep into thought and think about things like what would happen if you went home. That, or when your home is brought up. Though usually it goes away after a second if it's just that." I started walking towards the door. "Hey! Wait! Ellilou!"

"I've gotta go get some sleep, I have a fight tomorrow..."

"A fight? Against who?"

"I-I'd better go with her! See ya tomorrow Gon!" Killua said quickly, rushing towards the door and pushing me out it, helping me avoid the question.

"Hey, wait! Killua! Ellilou!" As Killua's hand reached for the handle to close the door, Gon tried one last time. "Celeste!" I looked up from the floor, turning to look at him. Killua had stopped a moment to remember my name to Gon was previous Celeste, and as he closed the door I made a diamond shape with my hand. All I could do was hope he got my hint. Or hope he hadn't, since I didn't_ really_ want him to know. But I couldn't just leave him blind like that, I wouldn't want him to do that to me, and I doubt he would.

That, or he would have used that as a reason to leave me blind towards one of his matches. But who knew, maybe I would_ actually_ be blind after my fight against Hisoka. Or deaf. _**Or dead.**_


	10. Fight X Misshapen Objects X Handshake

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. Freakin' Bushwah has made me update 3 times this week. So thank that little witch for me updating this many times. This won't be my typical schedule though, and she can refer to this statement when I tell her I've told her I'm not updating 3 times a week. xD Anyways, I want to warn you guys, I absolutely _suck_ at writing fight scenes, so this maybe be a chapter you have to fight to read. But uh. It's. Kind of worth it? It gets you from chapter 9 to chapter 11, if you don't read it you'll have this hole in your timeline of events. So yeah. Welp, enjoy, kind of~**

**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT TOGASHI AND THEREFOR I DO NOT OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

I took a deep breath. I couldn't back out, it wasn't an option. I heard people shouting out in the crowds, mostly for Hisoka. But there was a steady chant for me to, which make the corner of my mouth twitch to a smile, then back to normal. I had to defeat Hisoka. _Being_ defeated wasn't an option. If I was defeated, I'd either be dead, or he would give me enough injuries so that I couldn't heal in time to do another match in time. I slowly opened my eyes, cracking my knuckles. I walked into the arena, my eyes never leaving Hisoka. If it's a battle he wanted, it was a battle he would get.

"Begin!" I immediately was dodging left and right, not missing a beat when he tried to punch twice with the same arm to throw me off. I backflipped when he tried to kick me, managing to catch my foot on his chin and snap his had back on my way back. I landed on my hands and pushed, going back further onto my feet I extended my nails into claws, not waiting for him to make his move. I raced at him, slicing at him with my claws. Of course, all I sliced was air. He was just as good at dodging, and he punched me in the stomach while I was distracted. I lost my air, and with his hard-as-stone punch, I was knocked back a good ten feet or so.

I stopped my back from slamming into the floor with my hands, locking my arms when I landed on my behind. I jumped onto my feet, then ran around with assassins speed, making myself somewhat disappear for a moment, until I was in the air behind him, just a bit above him. I went to stab my regrown claws into his head, but he was already gone. He knocked me onto the ground, on my side this time. My arm went in a position it probably shouldn't have been able to, but seeing as it didn't hurt to a point I couldn't stand and it still worked fine I wasn't too worried.

I lurched at him, from behind, aiming to claw the back of his feet so I could pull him down when I was done. Of course, right when I was about to make contact he disappeared, so I put my palm to the floor. It stopped me, and I spun around on it. I figured out he'd jumped, so I aimed to knock him down. Of course, he jumped again. "_**I am not a damn jump rope!**_" I pushed up, sending me up in the air a good twenty or so feet, aiming to stab his head again. When he was gone, I landed on my feet. I went back to assassin speed, searching the arena for him. _Where was he?_

I saw him eventually, and jumped at him, ready to stab his heart. He dodged again, and I felt him yank me to the ground, his knee slamming into my chest when I stopped. He pushed one shoulder back harshly, yanking the other forward. I'm pretty sure he tore some muscles, but I couldn't take the time to care. I disappeared from his grip, kicking him in the back of the head from behind. He jumped up and disappeared, which pissed me off further since for most people that kick would be enough to at least stun you, if not knock you out.

I whipped around to see where he went, and felt something slice the right side of my neck. I instinctively reached up to see what hit me, to have the tips of my fingers coated in blood. I immediately dropped to one knee, and easily ripped a strip of fabric off of my pants. I saw the playing card at my feet, and put it in my pocket as I shot back onto my feet. I tied the fabric around my neck, making a knot in my haste that I'd probably have to cut off later. I knew if I hadn't, the blood would have flowed out. Then I'd probably pass out of blood loss, or at least lose focus.

I turned to look at Hisoka, pulling the card out of my pocket. I went to rip it, then noticed it losing shape, as if it was some glob of putty or something. I looked at Hioska, wondering what he was up to, but he looked just as shocked as I did. I quickly ripped the card and tossed the pieces away, discarding my worry of what the _**hell**_ that was until later. I ran at Hisoka while he was shocked and sliced at his cheek, and managed to make some sort of cut. It ran along most of his right cheek, but I wasn't able to make it very deep.

"Perhaps I was wrong, maybe you aren't ready to fight me. I suppose that means you aren't strong enough to protect the boy and his friend either... Hn. What a shame. Looks like we're both wrong today, doesn't it Ellilou?" Hisoka said, turning to look at me. I growled, clenching my fists. I didn't care that my own claws dug into my palms, I was_ pissed._

"When are you people going to learn. _**Don't. Test. My ability. To protect. my brothers!**_" I yelled, jumping at him faster than he could react to. I clawed at his face, his throat. I got some sort of pleasure out of seeing the gashes of blood. But when I finally went to stab him, which I was sure Gon wouldn't be happy about since he wouldn't have gotten to fight him, I was snapped to the floor and kicked onto my stomach, hard enough that it cracked a couple of my ribs.

"Ellilou! No!" I heard Killua's voice specifically in the crowd, but there was nothing I could do about it. Hisoka twisted my right arm so that my elbow was flat on it's side against my back, in the way it should never be. He slammed his knee down on my elbow, then snapped my forearm. I bit back the scream, just like the Zoldycks had taught me. When he got up, probably to kick me back onto my back, I jumped to my feet. My right arm hung uselessly at my side, but I wasn't ready to give up.

I was about to leap at him, when I stopped dead. _You're not strong enough to fight him. You know you aren't. You know your reasoning for fighting him isn't genuine. You don't care what he does to Gon or Killua. You wouldn't be able to fight well even if you admitted your true intention. To kill him. To fight._ "_Fuck off, Illumi. I don't need your damn input right now._" I looked at my left arm, which I felt rising up. It's fingers were forming the sign of forfeit, but I wasn't doing it. I felt the odd feeling from the day before around me, but I was determined not to lose control like I had yesterday. **_Not here, not now. Not when it would mean Hisoka winning._**

I snapped my arm down, the feeling going away. Then though, I was ripped through the air. Not moving myself, my feet left the ground. I was yanked towards Hisoka, and he slammed me into the floor, on my bad arm. The floor below me started losing shape like the card had, and suddenly It dropped down so I was in a pit in the floor. My eyes widened as I struggled to stand up in the rounded floor beneath me, looking up at the calmly shocked Hisoka. His look of shock always just looked like curiosity.

The floor then shot up, not stopping until I was meters above Hisoka. I looked at the floor beneath me and stood up on the rounded top, since I'd fallen when it started moving. What the _**hell**_ was _with_ this changing-shape concept around here? I slid down the side of it for the most part, jumping at the end so that I didn't fall or stumble when I reached the bottom. I looked at Hisoka. "Care to explain the magical-changing floor, Hisoka?"

Hisoka shrugged nonchalantly, smirking. "I don't know why it did that, I've never seen it before. Are you sure it's not your doing, my dear?"

"_**Hell no it's not my doing!** _How the hell would I make the _**floor**_ change shape!?" I yelled, then realized I was still in a battle with him. I jumped at him, but he dodged and grabbed my ankle, causing my head to slam into the floor. He instantly broke my ankle, and I had to bite back screams of pain again. But I managed not to show any signs of it affecting me at all. He dropped my ankle, causing the rest of me that wasn't my head to drop to the floor like dead weight. Now what would I do? I couldn't run on one foot.

He crouched down about two feet in front of my feet, his hands about an inch from the floor as arms laid casually on his knees. "Do you give up, my dear? Do you see now that I can overpower you? And that you_** can't**_ protect the boy from me?"

"I won't give up. I'll **_prove_** to you I can protect Gon, damn it!" I shot up on my knees and jumped at him doing such, digging my claws into his neck very briefly. He kicked my chest, sending me a good twelve feet away from him. He appeared next to me, standing over me as my vision went in and out. I could see the many bleeding cuts on his face and neck from where I'd lost it previously. They weren't deep enough to make him bleed out, though he did lose a unhealthy amount of blood. The ten new marks bled much heavier, I'd cut deeper. He crouched down next to me again.

"You _can't_ protect Gon. But this match is over, and there's no use beating a dead horse. So maybe when you wake up, you'll have realized it. You shouldn't put all of your effort in protecting Gon, it'll be wasted. I'll fight you again, when you really are ready."

"Wake up? I'm not asleep you crazy-ass clow-" He rammed his elbow into my stomach, knocking the air out of me. Then his hands wrapped around my neck, tightening. I couldn't breath at all, I was afraid he'd snap my windpipe. I passed out very quickly from the lack of air, hating the feeling helpless that came over me. The last thing I saw was Hisoka smiling, but his voice wasn't the last one I distinctly heard. The last voice I heard was Illumi's. _I told you you weren't strong enough to face him. You should have listened._

* * *

My heart was pounding. I watched from the crowds as that asshole delivered hit after hit against my sister. I knew she had to feel as helpless as I did watching. I wanted to go down there to kill him myself, especially when he strangled her to make her pass out. She looked pale as they carried her out of the arena. I was now racing down the hallways, too panicked to really use my assassin's speed. I had to see her, know he hadn't broken her windpipe. I had to know her heart was still beating.

I knocked the nurse away who tried to stop me when I reached her room. She yelled that I wasn't allowed to go in yet, but I did anyways. Inside, Ellilou laid on the white hospital bed. Her neck was properly bandaged, opposed to her previous makeshift bandage she'd made out of the fabric on the bottom of her pant leg. Her pant legs were rolled up, some type of cast around her broken ankle, and around her broken arm. She had various bandages, and I figured they'd already taken care of her inevitably broken ribs. The only relief I had was I could see she was breathing fine.

I constantly reminded myself that all of us Zoldycks were pale, and convince myself that being as pale as she was was normal. As I walked over next to her bed, the doctor came in. He stopped and looked accusingly at me. I didn't really care about him, I cared more about the medical chart in his hand that _had_ to state the official condition my sister was in. "Who are you? She hasn't been approved for visitors yet, no one should be giving out her room number. No one is supposed to be in h-"

"I'm her _brother_. Killua **_Zoldyck_**. I suggest you don't try anything," I said, keeping my voice low. "Unless you want them to have to replace their dead doctor. And nobody had to give me approval, or a room number. So calm your_ **damn**_ self."

"O-Of course I won't do anything, sir. F-Feel free to stay in here."

"I will," I responded, keeping my voice normal pitch now, but keeping serious. "Now, what are her injuries?"

"Three broken ribs on the left side, broken right arm, broken left ankle, fractured left wrist, many bruises, an about two centimeters deep cut on the right side of her neck, and a bruise on the back right of her head."

"Damn it..." I muttered, looking at her. She was laying straight as a board for the most part. Her arm in the cast laid on top of her, though the other one laid fairly straight at her side. Nothing else was bent. She never laid like that. She laid on her side or stomach a lot, or she had her fingers laced together behind her head if she was laying on her back. Or her ankles crossed. _Something._ This was too proper for her. I sighed, closing my eyes. "How long will it take for her to heal?"

"Well, with the amount of injuries her body is trying to patch and the extent of some of the injuries..." The doctor looked between Ellilou and her chart for a second, then he looked at me. "At least three months."

"So she won't make it for her next match here in Heaven's Arena?" That wasn't going to go over well with her or Gon. I couldn't let her battle though, she would just get hurt worse. A lot of people saw their match, a heard a lot of people anticipating it. So a lot of people would know how to use her injuries against her. They could easily torture them in the arena without getting penalties.

"It's very unlikely." The doctor confirmed. I sighed, but then I remembered something. Even though Ellilou didn't live with us for five years, she still had eight years of training. She was still, deep inside, a _Zoldyck_. She was like me, she didn't want to be, she didn't act like one, but she still had the advantages of the training. And one of those advantages was training our body to heal fast.

I smirked and looked at the doctor. "She'll make it. We heal fast," I slowly grabbed her hand, massaging the back of it with my thumb. I couldn't lose confidence in her. She would be fine. "When should she wake up?"

"Sometime within the next forty-eight hours. She took a lot of damage and with the way he knocked her out, it's common to take at least thirty-six, but we've had as much as a week. She seems to be within the forty-eight hour range, though. I wouldn't worry too much."

"I'm not worried," I corrected, looking at him. "I just wish she hadn't have been forced to fight."

The doctor nodded and left the room. I turned and looked at Ellilou, sighing. I wanted her to wake up so I knew she was alright. Though her not waking up gave me an excuse to not have told Gon immediately, because I really didn't want to go deliver the news to Gon right now. I didn't feel like having to see how badly he'd want to come see her, or his anger that she fought Hisoka. And I sure as hell didn't want to tell him her main reason for accepting the fight was she felt threatened, and her ability to protect him and I was tested. He wouldn't be happy.

After about an hour, I pulled one of the chairs in the room next to her bed, sitting down and grabbing her hand again after words. "Hey Ellilou... I'm sorry about your fight... I... I wish he didn't know how protective of us you are, then he wouldn't be able to make you so mad, and you could think straight... I'm sorry... I-I guess that's why I'm talking to you while you're knocked out too, I'm not good at saying sorry. So this is your apology, got it!" I grinned at her, then sighed. "I'd apologize to you awake if you'd wake up though..."

It was about two in the morning when I was shook awake, having fallen asleep about four hours ago. I blinked awake slowly, looking at the face a foot or so from mine. Ellilou was sitting up, and I immediately felt horrible, seeing her pain in her eyes. She was good at hiding it, and she was doing a good job of, I knew how to look. But she still showed it more than she usually did. She smiled slightly at me, her eyes partially closed. It was pretty dark, but I was able to make out her face well enough considering my eye sight.

"Kil, what are you doing here? It's two in the morning, you should be in your room. You don't need to sleep in a chair for me, you should be in your bed. You don't wanna hurt your back and have to deal with _that_ annoyance during a fight, do ya?" Her voice was a little shaky, but otherwise she seemed fine. So I guess he didn't hurt her vocal chords or anything when he practically tried to snap her neck.

"I'm alright, it's not as uncomfortable as it looks, really. Besides, I think they lock the doors into the hospital area at like... midnight. So I don't think I'm allowed to leave. So I'll stay here with you. Unless you're mad at me and are going to make me go sleep in Gon's room."

"No, stay here," Ellilou responded, and I could tell she said it much quicker than she'd meant to. "I mean, you're going to be sleeping in the same style chair in his room, so... You might as well stay in here. Then you don't have to worry about annoying nurses asking questions or anything. Tomorrow though, you're not staying this late. You're sleeping in your room tomorrow."

"Alright, alright. Jeeze, you think you'd be more appreciative that I was so worried about you." I said, rolling my eyes.

"You were worried about me? Why? I've still had assassins training-"

"So have I, more than you. But if I were the one who'd gotten hurt this badly, wouldn't _you_ be worried about _me_?" She sighed, then slowly nodded. "Then see, it's not that weird now is it? Anyways, I know this is a stupid question but... How do you feel?"

"Physically? Like I was used as Mike's chew-toy. Mentally? I... I'll get back to you on that."

"You know if we were_ actually_ in danger you would have done better. You didn't have the adrenaline of needing to save us on your side. You may have imagined us in danger, you may have thought losing would give Hisoka confidence and put us in danger, but the fact is we _weren't_. So _you_ didn't have the adrenaline and true motive to fight for our _lives_. If you did, Hisoka wouldn't be _breathing_ right now."

She blinked at me, and I hoped she realized what I meant. Even after the fight she lost, I still trusted her. I still believed that if she had to, she could protect us. I still didn't feel like she had to or needed to, but I knew there was no way to stop her. Not right now anyways. So for now, I just had to make sure she knew I had faith in her. I hadn't been able to show that to her for five years, I hadn't been able to let her know I cared about how she was either. That's probably why she had seemed so confused when I told her I was worried about her.

"Alright well... You should probably get some sleep. What time did you fall asleep earlier?"

"About ten. But I'm fine, I'm really not all that tired. I've been sleeping a lot lately, so-"

"Zoldyck, don't give me that. You're tired, you should sleep. If you're tired, you won't fight well. Which means you_ could_ lose. Just because you've been a Zoldyck for twelve years, doesn't mean you're indestructible. You can still get hurt out there, just not as easy. And you should know better than any one to never let your guard down. And letting yourself fall behind is letting your guard down. And a couple of bad injuries could cost you your place on the 200th floor."

"Then how come you're worrying about me _possibly_ getting hurt in the_ future_ instead of you _having_ gotten hurt _already_? You don't seem concerned with yourself in the slightest, not that that's anything new. Seriously Ellilou, you need to think about yourself sometimes. _Especially_ when you're a broken and beaten _mess_ in the _hospital_!"

"I am_** not**_ a broken and beaten_** mess**_! I may be broken and beaten, but I have my thoughts together! I'm not freaking out about anything, besides you accusing me of being a mess, and I am not misunderstanding things! I'm _not_ a mess, and you will _not_ call me one!"

"You are one! You have been since I saw you in the_ Hunter Exam_! I don't consider someone who's willing to throw their life away _every time_ someone they care about _could be_ in danger okay! I call them a _mess_ who needs to realize the person they're always risking their life for is going to be worse off without them than with the injuries they could have gotten, along with other people!" I realized I was ranting again, and I slowly calmed down. She looked shocked again, and she sighed and looked away. "Ellilou... I didn't mean to upset you-"

"_You_ didn't upset me Killua. You don't really have the ability to. I'm upset with myself... This is the second time _you've_ had to snap me out of my over-protectiveness. You're right too, I need to worry about myself at least a little bit more... I can't worry about you if I'm dead. Well I can, but I can't do anything about it. I really should plan things out better..."

"Well it's not like you could have planned anything in your fight with Hisoka. It's just, you haven't seemed the slightest bit concerned about yourself since you woke up. I'm just worried you won't worry enough about your injuries, and you'll push them beyond the point of repair."

"You're going to worry about this the whole time... Aren't you?"

"Probably. I mean, if history repeats itself-"

"Fine. I promise I won't push my injuries. If I do, then I have to go to Whale Island for a month and let you two protect yourselves, so that I can't. Fair?"

I knew she would never let that happened, so I grinned and nodded. "Fair. But you have to blood-seal it."

"You're getting a handshake. I am so done with you Zoldycks and your blood seals. I_ refuse_ to be part of another one. I did good to have to touch Silva's blood with mine. And I have no particular interest in making myself bleed any more. That would be partially going against my promise, because it would put more stress on my body, and therefor my injuries. And I honestly don't feel like watching you make yourself bleed, especially not when it's my fault. And before you say it's not, it is. For worrying. So, handshake."

I laughed, grinning at her. I nodded and extended my hand. "Fine, handshake."

* * *

**Just a couple of notes, the **_slanted _**words aren't intended to be Illumi unless Ellilou states such in some way. So yeah. And, in case you were confused, the second half/the part after the line is from Killua's point of view. So yeah.**


	11. Breaking Ties X Terrified X Yes Sir

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. I've written on this the past... five or six days, I headed up to visit some family out of state about... three days ago. So I did a lot of writing, alongside my cousin Red-chan. And I totally don't remember her actual fanfiction username... Red X Trouble? Maybe. Anyways. So yeah I wrote on this, and since I had no convenient stopping place due to free writing (no internet; no place to check how many words I've written) have 2,000 more words than my typical chapter. I keep reading the word count (6,083) and keep wanting to just throw a brick at something for not being able to split the chapter somewhere so I could have part of the next chapter written. xD**

**Now lets hope it doesn't eat up internet data to update a fanfiction, yeah?**

**Gomenasai for any OOC-ness from... Well... I suppose you'll know who I'm talking about when you see how they're acting. Then again, Red-chan (AKA the goddess of *insert-character-name-here*-writing, or at least I call her that) approves, so maybe I'm okay...? Come on he's a minor character no one knows how he acts in a general situation. xD**

**I also apologize for any spelling errors. Wordpad doesn't have spell check, and that's all I have to write on on my laptop other than Notepad. I ran it through spellcheck at LEAST twice, plus I read over it myself. I tried really hard. Typically when I write, I have spell check and can take care of spelling errors when they happen. So please bare with my this chapter. xD (And no Bushwah, this doesn't give you permission to nag me about my spelling. Because I know that's where your thoughts are now.)**

**Disclaimer: HUNTER X HUNTER IS OWNED BY TOGASHI, AKA NOT ME.**

* * *

By time I _finally_ got out of the hospital, I had two months left to battle. The doctor suggested I got used to moving around again before I battled, and a serious glare from my little brother told me I was to obey the doctor. As I left my room, I looked down the hall to see Gon coming our way. I hadn't been able to see him since I went in two months ago, he looked a lot better. His arm was still in a sling, but he was no longer all bruised up. When our eyes met he ran straight at me, and I braced myself. His feet left the ground as he tackled me, and I wasn't quite braised enough. I hit the floor, keeping my head up so that I didn't get a concussion or something. "Come on, Gon! I _just_ got out of the hospital! I'll never make it in time to fight if you break my head open!"

"Hehe, sorry Ellilou! I've just missed you! Killua told me about everything that happened... You shouldn't have fought Hisoka, you could have been killed..."

"I know... I know... I'm sorry. But I missed you too." I said, desperately trying to change the subject. I already felt bad enough due to Killua, I didn't want to feel guilty because of Gon too. Killua came out of my room, having demanded he got to carry my stuff so I didn't put stress on my arm. He looked at us, my backpack in his arms due to his being on his back. He stared for a minute before he said anything to us, just blinking.

"What are you two doing down there? We have to hurry up and get you two to your rooms before something _else_ can happen. We wouldn't want to miss Hisoka's match." I looked a Killua, raising my eyebrows.

"Hisoka's match? What the hell? What match?"

"I paid good money for two tickets to Hisoka's match tonight, so that me and Gon can watch him fight. Gon needs to be prepared for his match against Hisoka, you should know that better than anyone. Shouldn't you, Ellilou?"

"Shut up! I'd love to see _you _fight that clown-! Actually no I wouldn't. Don't fight him. Please. Anyways... Gon needs to defeat someone here _first_ before Hisoka will _consider_ letting him fight him anyways. Shouldn't we be focusing on that _before_ we focus on how to fight Hisoka? And..." I looked at Gon, then looked away. "Do you _really_ have to fight him?"

"Ellilou, you promised you wouldn't get in the way-"

"I know what I promised, don't tell me what I promised! I'm just making sure you're willing to go out into the arena to_ die_! Because that's what's going to happen! I'm a _Zoldyck_ Gon, and I barely made it out! I _only_ made it out because Hisoka decided he wanted me alive right now! You _saw_ him in the Hunter Exam, he is _**after **_you! He _wants_ to fight you, he _wants_ to push your skills beyond their limits! Ultimately, he _wants_ to kill you!"

"I know that though Ellilou! But I'd rather go into arena and die than admit defeat before the match even starts! Hisoka knows my goal is to battle him now, and he'll think even weaker of me if I back out now! I'd rather die than be underestimated and counted out like that!"

"Fine then! If that's the way you feel, then count me out of your _**damn**_ circus!" I stood up, turning to look at Killua. "And I swear if you come after me Killua, I _will_ kill you. I showed you at the Exam, I am _stronger_ than you. You can't stop me," I turned to look at Gon again. "You don't want me to protect you? Fine! Protect your _**damn **_self! I'm done with you, I'm not going anywhere else with you and I am _never_ returning to Whale Island! I'd rather return to the Zoldyck Estate!"

I stormed out of the hospital wing, hearing Gon call out for me as he tried to run after me. Using my assassin's speed though, I was in my room before he could get out of the hospital wing. I sat down on my bed, putting my head in my hands. Was I really ready to break ties with Gon? I knew the answer immediately. _No._ But I couldn't take anymore of the constant worry I had for him. and breaking ties with my blood brother I just got back was just as bad if not worse. But right now, I needed to focus on other things besides them. Like my own progress. Isn't that what I promised Killua anyways?

I slowly looked over at my ringing phone. I growled, figuring it was Killua or Gon. Then as I answered I remember they didn't have cell phones, didn't know my number, and hardly ever used the phones in our rooms. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ellilou? It's Pokkle."

I felt myself start to smile slightly, hearing the voice of one of my very few friends. "Hey Pokkle. Sorry I haven't called, I didn't have my cellphone on me and I couldn't remember your number."

"Why didn't you have your cellphone on your for a month? I've been trying to call about everyday, I was worried you'd gotten hurt."

"I-I had... I was in the hospital here at Heavens Arena. I went against Hisoka, he kinda forced me to... He could have killed me easily, but he didn't. He broke my arm, my ankle, a couple of my ribs... he sliced the side of my neck... Then he suffocated me."

"You went against _**Hisoka**_? Are you alright now? Why aren't you still in the hospital if you had all of those injuries? Ellilou, is this your whole thing about protecting Gon you had at the Exam? You know with those injuries you're in no shape-"

"Pokkle you're talking to Ellilou _Zoldyck_, remember that. I heal fast, just like the other Zoldycks. And uh... No, it's not about protecting Gon. In fact... I just told Killua and Gon that I wanted nothing to do with them, and to keep me out of their lives..."

"What happened that made you _that_ mad?"

"After all the injuries I received from Hisoka, and after all the injuries he got from some _other_ guy who doesn't even _compare_ to Hisoka, he _still _wanted to fight Hisoka. He didn't back down in the slightest. He told me he'd _rather _die in the arena than live underestimated..."

"Oh, I see... Last time you got mad at them this bad, you met me at the Hunter Exam, right?" I mumbled a 'mhmm' into the phone. "Too bad I'm not there this time to help distract you from it. I almost came though, when you didn't answer the phone so many times. I thought you might have been killed, since... It's not that uncommon for people competing in Heavens Arena to die... But anyways."

"Heh, yeah. Too bad. I could use you right now. Even though it's your fault I _shared_ a room with Hisoka and Illumi in the 3.5 phase." I said through my teeth, glaring at the wall with irritation of the thought. I still couldn't believe I had shared a room with my _brother_. I still had no idea why he didn't try to convince me out of the Exam then. He probably easily could have done it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to be stuck in a crappy room. Though, I guess a room with Hisoka and Illumi is crappier than the worst room they had..."

"Ya think?" I sighed. "Anyways... Yeah it's too bad you aren't here. I'm going to be totally alone on this floor from now on. And I've already had two people force me to fight, one guy used our friend Zushi as a puppet until I fought with him... The other was Hisoka," Chills went down my back when I thought of how close he had me pinned to the wall that day. "I used to think I would be able to be unphased by these people, be able to take on any of them and any I couldn't I could slip past. But I can't. I've never cared about being alone before... but here it's _terrifying._"

"Terrifying? You're scared? Are you alright, Ellilou? This isn't like you," He was right. I didn't know _what_ was wrong with me. I felt like crying, I don't_ cry_. But tears made their way out anyways. "Ellilou?"

"They can beat me... They can kill me... I didn't realize it until right before I passed out in my fight with Hisoka... I could _die_ here. Gon and Killua, I always knew they could. But it didn't hit me I could too. I don't want to die here... I don't want to be here..." I heard something spark to my left, and saw the lamp on the nightstand was losing it's shape. The wires were sparking, being bent and pulled. I jumped to my feet and knocked the nightstand away from the wall, careful not to knock over the lamp. I ripped the plug to the lamp out of the wall, and sighed with relief and the wires stopped sparking.

"What was all that noise?" Pokkle asked. "Are you alright?"

"W-Well... During my match against Hisoka, things kept losing shape. The card he threw at me, when I picked it up it deformed. The floor beneath me deformed majorly at one point... And this time my lamp deformed."

"Your lamp? Alright, lets not worry about the unpredictable right now... How about I come to Heavens Arena?"

"No, absolutely not!" I yelled, jumping to my feet from where I'd been crouching. "I will _not_ have _you_ in this nuthouse too! There's no point for you being here, you keep your little ass wherever you are!"

"Okay, okay, calm down! How about I just come for dinner tonight? It sounds like you need someone to talk to, and I think you should be talking to them in person. And with you not speaking to Gon and Killua... I assume Leorio and Kurapika aren't anywhere nearby, so aren't I next on the list? Come on, I promise. I won't compete there."

I sighed relaxing my previously tense shoulders. "Alright, fine. Waste your money on an airship ticket here, I'll meet you down on the bottom floor. just call when you get here. Alright?"

"Alright," I felt my eye twitch. I could just tell he was grinning. "See ya then!" He hung up the phone, and I sighed as I walked to my bag. I got a change of clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower, since they had very rarely let me take one with my injuries. I hated the hospital staff now, due the fact they made Killua stand inside the bathroom, facing the door mind you, to make sure I didn't fall with my ankle in such bad shape.

"_Don't you know how to fish, Celeste?" Gon asked, having handed me his fishing pole to give it a shot. I looked at the pole in my hands, then looked at him and sighed, shaking my head. He smiled and took it back, and started telling me step-by-step how to fish. Once he got a bite on the end of the line, he taught me how to reel it in. I gave it a shot, and after a few failed attempts at casting the line, I managed to get a small fish to bite my line. I reeled it in, and looked at it. It was about as long as my hand, and was a faint pink-ish color. "Now you toss it back!"_

"_What an agonizing cycle..." I mumbled, tossing the fish back. I handed him his fishing rod. "But anyways, fishing is your thing. I don't want to take the fishing pole from you all day. So, I'll be back." I hopped down from our tree branch and landed on the ground below, running off into the forest. Making sure no one was watching, I extended my claws and swiftly cut a branch from it's tree, carving it into the proper shape. I rushed back to Aunt Mito's house, shaping and nailing on a reel-thing, then adding fishing line. It was sure to break, but it'd give me something to do._

_I rushed back to Gon and cast my line after putting bait on it, then waited for a fish to bite. When it did, I found out my homemade fishing rod was sufficient. Gon high-fived me, grinning. "Good job, Ellilou! Maybe someday you can made professional fishing rods! I still wanna know where you got a branch like that though, those usually stay on the trees."_

"_This one must of just had a lot of small ones fall on it and get caught and add more and more weight onto it until it snapped or something. Or maybe it broke off during a storm or something. Who knows." Gon shrugged, and we both went back to fishing._

As I scrubbed my head, I questioned why that memory came to mind. Maybe it was because now that I was going to separate from them, I'd miss stuff like that. Just relaxing and having fun with Gon. I hadn't even gotten the chance to do that will Killua yet. While I was in the hospital, he had to nen train with Gon. I needed to stop thinking about them, but those two wouldn't leave my mind. Not that that was anything new, they never had.

"_Hey there, shouldn't you be going headed home? It's getting late; your parents might worry about you!" A spikey-black-haired kid asked. His bright brown eyes were on me as he stopped walking behind me. I turned to face him._

"_How do you know I'm not headed home right now?"_

"_There are no houses up that way," The kid said, pointing up the hill I was going up. "Well, besides a few. But I know those people, and they don't have a daughter who looks like you! I've never seen you around here before, do you live here on Whale Island?" I looked at the kid, crossing my arms._

"_Maybe I'm not, what's it to you? Does it really matter what I'm doing? Does it affect you? I don't think so. So you can go on with your business."_

"_B-But you look lonely! Where are your parents at?" I looked away from him, searching for an excuse to give him. This kid was persistent, I could tell he would give if I told him to butt-out. I sighed._

_"My parents docked here previously, and we got off the ship to conduct business. Well, they did. And they told me to step out for a few minutes, so I did. After an hour of waiting, I went back to see where they were. The man they'd been talking to said they'd already left. So basically, my parents forgot I was here.__" I turned away from him, but he grabbed my hand._

"_S-So you're alone now? You don't have any family? Can we contact your aunts or uncles? Or your grandparents?"_

"_Both of my parents were the only child, and my grandparents are all dead. So no, there's no family we can contract. I'm fine on my own, I've been taught how to take care of myself."_

_"Aww, come on! At least come eat dinner at my house, you're hungry! I can see it! You're all skinny, and you look hungry and... And... Come on!" The boy took my hand and started pulling me with him as he headed in some other direction. I could have easily pulled out of his grip, but some part of me didn't want to. I'd been on starvation training for a month now, I hadn't been allowed to eat in Heaven's Arena the past month. They would have found out somehow, which would have resulted in severe punishment. I was hungry enough to eat every last scrap of food in the Zoldyck Estate, and to be honest it didn't sound too bad to eat and not have to look at my family._

_Eventually we reached a house on the top of a hill, and he pulled me inside. A lady with red hair came into the small room in the front, giving me a somewhat weary smile when she saw me. She then looked at the boy next to me and put her hands on her hips, looking much like a parent about to snap at her child. Or at least that's what I'd seen on tv. "Gon Freecss, what have I told you about bringing your friends home this late?"_

_"B-But Aunt Mito! I have a reason for bringing here here! Her parents forgot her at shore and they haven't come back for her, she hasn't eaten Aunt Mito. And she has no where to stay! We can't just let here fend for herself." I was glaring at the wall to the right of the woman from my point of view, refusing to look at either of them. I didn't want help, I could fend for myself easily. To be honest though, it'd go against what I'd just fought with my 'father' over. I would have to at least injure someone if not murder. Or at least I assumed no one was nice enough to allow me to stay in there home without inviting me._

_The lady, Mito, looked at me and blinked, seeming shocked. I honestly couldn't make out why. What did it matter? I had nothing to do with her, I'd never met her before. More likely than not, I'd never been within a hundred miles of the lady. I'd never done anything for her. Did she want a favor in return for helping me? I crossed my arms as she spoke. "How long ago has it been since your parents forgot you at shore? Have you eaten since? I am going to have a word with your parents when they come back for you!"_

_"More likely than not they won't. They can't break their trade route, they could lose millions just for being an hour late, more less days. Which is the time it'll take for them to get to their next destination. Not to mention the fact it could cost them the deal entirely."_

_"Your own child should be more important than money! They can replace and regain money, they can't replace their child!"_

_"You do have to have money to support a child and keep them alive. And you can regain a child."_

_"You can what?" Aunt Mito's eyes widened at me as she remembered Gon was there. She gave me a look that warned me not to bring that up again, and though I wasn't afraid of her I decided not to. She sighed and looked at me._

_"Well, you can stay here until your parents come to get you. I'll tell the men down at the docks to keep an eye out for two parents looking for their child."_

_"I'd be surprised if they came back at all. They probably won't. You shouldn't bother, you don't seem to be the kind of person who would want to ask me to leave like I was some sort of friend who overstayed their visit."_

_"If your parents don't come to look for you then I'll have our sailors get the word out that we have a child with missing parents. If by some chance they're never found, then we'll keep you. I'm not just going to put a young child out on the streets. It wouldn't be ri-"_

_"I'm not that young. I'm eight. I can handle myself," Then I remembered, typically eight year olds didn't have the survival skills of an eighty year old. I sighed. "Nevermind."_

_"No eight year old has all the knowledge you need for surviving. Besides, you'll be taken in by the police and forced to stay with them if they find you wandering without parents. You look really hungry sweety, come on." The lady took my hand and pulled me with her, catching me off guard. Typically when someone took my hand, it was to hurt me in some way or another. Flip me, pin me, train me. It never meant anything good._

_I was led to a room, where she left me standing by a chair. A older lady was already sitting across the table, and steaming food was in the middle. I felt my stomach practically jump for joy. Then I questioned whether these were people asked to find me by my family. The boy - I mean Gon, I don't typically pay attention to names - pulled a chair out from the table and smiled at me. After a second I realized he intended for me to sit there, so I sighed and did._

_After I sat down, they all started making their plates. I didn't really know what I was allowed to have, every night at home I was only allowed a certain amount. Gon blinked at me, tilting his head. "What's wrong? You can make your plate now... I... I don't know your name." Instead of dealing with his issue over my name, I slowly started giving myself tiny portions of food._

_"You can eat as much as you want, sweety. You don't have to worry about eating too much, we make plenty, Typically we have too much anyways." Mito said, smiling at me. Slowly I nodded, then began filling my plate to my heart's content. They all bowed their heads with their eyes shut, and I just stared. I hadn't the slightest clue as to what they were doing, but I pretended to do it to. I heard them move, so I opened my eyes and started eating. Apparently they had too, so at least I didn't screw up there. I never lifted my head though, I didn't feel like looking at them._

_"Are you okay, dear?" The lady across the table asked. I nodded without looking up and kept eating. The food was really good, I wasn't sure what was so different about it. Maybe it was because it wasn't created by five-star chefs. I'd heard on tv before that there was a difference, but I never bothered to remember what it was. I heard them start chatting about what Gon'd done that day, but I didn't bother to pay attention. I was shocked when I realized like I felt like I was intruding. What did I care?_

_After dinner, Mito pulled an air mattress out for me to sleep on. She laid it down in Gon's room, and that was that. Gon laid down on his bed, and I laid down on my mattress. I wasn't the biggest fan of sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, but it didn't take too entirely long for me to fall asleep._

_When I woke up, it wasn't because of my eternal alarm clock for my training or Heaven's Arena schedule. I realized my hand was around someone's throat, and that someone was Gon. He looked terrified, and i quickly removed my hand. "Why were you by my bed!?"_

_"Y-You looked cold... So I brought you a blanket," He said, pointing to the blanket now draped over my lower body. "I-I'm sorry."_

_"No, no. It's not your fault... I was just trained to- ... attack if someone got near me in my sleep, ya know. You can't trust everybody on the ships."_

_"Oh, okay. Sorry to have startled you, you just looked really cold. So I wanted to help."_

_"It's fine, really. You just caught me off guard. Are you alright? I'm sorry." I was just glad I was taught to just stop the person, not kill them. When I asked Illumi why we didn't kill them, he said it was so that we could get information out of them as to why they tried to come near us. I was satisfied with the answer, especially since it meant I didn't have to kill extra people. And though it may seem odd, interrogating was my favorite part of missions. It pleased my family, and it was fun finding out what made people talk._

_"It's okay! Don't worry about it!" Gon said, smiling brightly at me. "Sleep tight,- I still never learned your name. Will you tell it to me, please?"_

_"I... My name is... Celeste." I had no place of origin for the name. Maybe it was from tv show I watched, a book I read, or someone I murdered. But now it was me. Gon smiled at me and nodded._

_"Sleep tight, Celeste!" I watched him go back over to his bed and lay down, then I slowly sank back down to laying down on my own bed. I pulled the blanket over me, realizing there was a ghost feeling of coldness in the room. I slowly closed my eyes, hoping that didn't happen again. The fear in people's eyes is always what made me want to stop assassinating. Seeing it in his happy-go-lucky eyes because of my doing was one of the worst feelings I'd felt._

I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. After drying off, I got dressed into another black sleeveless shirt like my previous one, which I wore over a white tank top par usual. I put on a blue jean jacket with elbow-length sleeves over it, and khaki pants identical to my previous black ones. I put back on my black boots, then brushed my hair out some more. Once it was it's typical self, I left the bathroom. I watched tv until my cellphone rang. "Hello?"

"I'm down here on the bottom level."

"You doofus you should have called me at the airport so I could have could've met you there! Didn't I tell you, Hisoka is here! Not to mention a bunch of others just as bad! Well maybe not Hisoka bad but... You know what I mean! Are all of my friends suicidal!?"

"Sorry, sorry. Come meet me?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." I hung up the phone and headed downstairs. I completely ignored Hisoka when I passed him, and headed down to the bottom floor. I nodded at the elevator girl as thanks, which was much more than Killua and Gon ever seemed to give her. I headed to the front door, where I immediately recognized the peach-orange haired boy who awaited me. He was leaning against the wall, staring at the ceiling. When he saw me he smiled, straightening up.

"Hey there, Ellilou. Feel any better?"

"I don't want to talk about it." After my recollection of memories in the shower, I wanted to hug Gon. I knew he meant well, he wanted to prove himself. Just like I had wanted to prove to Silva I could make it without killing people. But it still made me so mad that he didn't even consider how much he worried me, and didn't seem to care when I tried to explain it to him.

"Maybe being with your friend will help. Come on, lets go eat." He turned and headed out, and I followed behind him. Once we got close to the area where the restaurants would be, we were in a crowd as dense as Gon and Killua.

"We're gonna get split up at this rate..." I mumbled under my breath, and evidently Pokkle heard me. Whether that was unfortunate or not, I'll get back to you on that. As if by some automatic response, he grabbed my hand and started navigating us through the crowd. I felt a sharp chill go down my back, an oddly familiar feeling. I stopped us, yanking him back my way since he tried to continue on. "Pokkle, we've been trying to find an uncrowded restaurant for ten minutes. We're taking what we get."

We went inside and were seated at a booth for two somewhere near the back of the seating tables. It was completely dark besides the blue and green neon lights lining the tables, chairs, booth seats, and the area where you get a hostess to seat you. Believe it or not, though it didn't illuminate the room, it was easy to see people and objects. I sat down across from Pokkle, looking at the electronic menu handed to me. Pokkle and I looked up. "Sushi."

We both started laughing as we recalled our second phase of the exam. "Of course, that would be the one thing they had. Stupid Menchi, ruining sushi for us." I commented, reading the menu. There were at least fifty types of sushi listed, but that was all they had, minus drinks and dessert. "Do you even know the difference here?"

"Not a clue. You?"

I paused a second, recalling some of the types from home. "Actually, I do. Well a few." I recommended my favorite type to him, then we electronically put in our order. The devices they gave us evidently were their form of waiters. There was a button to send for someone to fill our drinks, to order, to give us our bill. This seemed like something I would have only imagined my family to come up with.

Once we placed our orders were placed, Pokkle looked at me. "So, are you fully recovered from your injuries?"

"For the most part. The doctors 'recommended' I didn't fight until I got used to walking and such again. I promised Killua I'd wait, but since he doesn't matter anymore-"

"You should wait, Ellilou. You don't need to push yourself, you should still have plenty of time to register for another match. There's no point of fighting and hurting yourself further. Just relax. Alright?"

I looked at him, a bit shocked at his concern. I half expected for him to laugh and to tell me he was joking, to go out there and fight until I was in pieces. But he didn't. He had a serious look on his face I wasn't used to receiving from anybody but Gon or Killua. I slowly nodded. "A-Alright. I'll wait." He smiled, and our sushi very soon arrived. For the first few minutes, it was quiet. Then Pokkle looked at me.

"Are you sure you want to stay here and be by yourself? You scared me on the phone, during the exam you seemed so confident in yourself. You seemed like you couldn't care less about how strong the other people around you were, you seemed like you thought you could take any of them down in an instant. You didn't take any of their strengths into consideration."

"You're right, I didn't. I thought I could take any of them down. But I was wrong. I couldn't have taken Hisoka down... He... He could have easily killed Gon."

"I think the outcome would have been different if Gon had been in danger-"

"Yeah yeah, I know. I heard the same thing from Killua. But that's no guarantee. So I have to train to be stronger, so I can take them all down if I need to. Even though I'm not protecting them anymore. I need to be able to protect myself."

"Haven't you already done enough training? You sound like your older brother right now."

"Ugh, don't compare me to him. Everyone needs to train to be stronger, even if it's not hardcore like the Zoldycks. It could still help. I'm not going to go Zoldyck-crazy or anything, I just need to sharpen my skills a little bit."

"Aren't they sharp enough Miss Monster Claws?"

"No, Mr. Bow-And-Arrow."

"Seriously Ellilou, didn't you want to be normal? You're already inhumanly strong, making yourself stronger isn't going to plead your case."

"If I'm inhumanly strong, then it's not that uncommon. Since there are a ton of people in Heavens Arena stronger than me."

"You give yourself a lot less credit than you deserve. Not a lot of people can beat them, Ellilou. You're strong enough, you don't need to beat them. It's okay for there to be people stronger than you. How do you think I feel? A girl younger than me could kill me quicker than she could blink!"

"Are you questioning the speed of my blinking?"

"Not the point!" I sighed, noticing his frustration. "Ellilou, listen. You don't need to be alone here at Heaven's Arena. You either need to make up with Gon and Killua, or make ally!"

I sighed again, nodding. "Alright, I'll do one. Most likely the latter. Though I'm not sure I'd trust anyone here..."

"Ellilou, if it's bad enough for you to admit you're scared, you need to either leave, or have people familiar to you. You shouldn't be alone here."

"I told you I'd do one or the other, Pokkle. I'm not going to lie to you. If I was going to do that, I wouldn't have admitted that I was scared. I don't admit to Killua or Gon that I'm scared ninety-nine percent of the time. You should feel lucky you caught me at such a weak moment."

"It was actually nice to hear you weren't blindly confident... You could get killed too easily if you were over-confident..."

"I know that, Pokkle. There's a reason Illumi always preached to me not to fight an opponent stronger than me, as much as I absolutely hate to admit it." I looked at the remainder of my sushi, it suddenly being unappetizing. Though when I went to push my almost half full plate away, I got a look from Pokkle advising to do otherwise. I picked at my sushi in silence for awhile, and eventually we left.

As we walked down the street, I felt the odd feeling from before slowly get stronger. As we neared Heaven's Arena, it started to become overwhelming. I dropped to my knees at the front door, wanting to collapse completely. I heard footsteps in front of me, and heard Pokkle growl. I looked up to see my older brother, his long black hair still lighter than his cold black eyes. "It's time for you to come home."

"N-N..." The feeling became stronger, making me want to scream. "Y-Yes sir..."

"Stand up."

"I can't... You're keeping me from standing up." The feeling slowly eased off just enough for me to stand. I couldn't understand Pokkle's muffled words, as if they were being drowned out. But when I heard him start to run at Illumi, I put my arm out to stop him. "Get out of here Pokkle. You can't interfere. I've told you before and I'll tell you again, he'll kill you. Just get out of here."

"Ellilou-"

"Now, damn it!" I yelled, closing my eyes. I wouldn't turn to face him. I never learned where he went, everything blacked out.

* * *

**Yes, Red-chan is the goddess of Pokkle writing.**


	12. Mike X Losing Will X Forgotten Alluka

**Hello everyone, Lunamon810 here. With the next chapter of The Taken Up Offer (No, I didn't almost type Digimon: The Crest of Trust. What are you talking about? xD) after... Nine days? i'm sorry it took so long, I've been busy. I was visiting family until a few days ago, and when i got home I had like, no time to write. I had to catch up places, I had to edit amvs with deadlines, (Which, ya know, I'm still working on. But you guys have been waiting too long for my tastes. xD) I had a drawing I had to make for someone... Schoolwork... Cosplay stuff... I've had a busy time. But things are starting to thin out, so hopefully I'll have a better consistency again.**

**My plan is to have another chapter up by the 8th, whether it's way before or pushing it. I have an anime convention to go to with Red-chan from the 8th to the 10th, and god knows I won't get any writing done unless she does. Which I don't foresee, but then again this is Red-chan we're talking about. Anyway, I don't know if I'll get more than one chapter up before then. Due to my delay I _might_ try to get another one up this week and one up next week, but don't hold me to it. Just depends on how things go.**

**Anyway, enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: HUNTER X HUNTER'S RIGHTS STILL LAY IN TOGASHI'S HANDS, NOT MY OWN.**

**Though Ellilou's rights are all mine. Minus the Zoldyck factor. The character herself. And well, Red-chan always has permission to use my characters because typically it's the same vice versa. But you get my point, darn it. xD**

* * *

When I came to, I was on an airship. My watch told me it was about an hour later. I grumbled as I sat up, not quite realizing who I was with. When I looked up and across from me, I saw Illumi. His cold black eyes were watching me, and to be quite honest I preferred having Hisoka's eyes on me. I straightened up, stiff. My fingers violently twitched as I slowly turned my nails into claws. I was prepared to fight him, even if I wasn't skilled enough. "Illumi. Our father told me I could leave with my friends. Unless he has called me back, you have no right to drag me back."

"He'll change his mind when he sees this, don't you think?" His voice was completely blank as he somehow managed to balance a blank disk on the tip of his pointer finger.

"What's that?" I asked quietly, unable to think of anything my father would care about that'd happened. Why would he care I got mad at Gon and Killua, or that I stayed with them? That wasn't betraying my friends, was it? My injuries from my match wouldn't matter to him, and he'd boast at my match against Darris. Was it a camera that'd caught me cutting ties with Gon and Killua?

"It's your match against Hisoka. Your performance out there was disappointing, at the least. He'll agree you need to come home for training when he sees it. Besides, you can't leave the estate forever. You would hear assassination calling you back soon enough. Didn't you register your thoughts during your match against Darris? It was obvious you were ready to murder him-"

"With good reason, damn it! Don't throw that match in my face! He deserved to die, he was eternally trapping people inside their own bodies and making them his puppets! And anyway, I didn't kill him!"

"You wanted to kill the guy in Trick Tower as well. You were blind with desire to murder, you didn't even hear the voices of those who were with you."

My voice came out much shakier than I'd intended. "How did you know about that?"

"Did you ever think you were truly unwatched when you were thrown off the estate? Of course, we had to keep tabs on you. We never intended on throwing you out forever. Just until you'd grown out of your immaturity and could realize you were born to be an assassin."

"Shut up!" I hadn't meant to shriek my words, but I had. My hands had instinctively covered my ears, I honestly didn't want to hear anymore. "I'm done! I'm done with you, and your ability to be in my head, and Hisoka being able to defeat me, and Gon, and Killua, all of you! If you want to train me so be it, at least it'll eventually kill me!"

"You know our training would never push far enough for you to die. If we did that, it would be counter-productive." I screamed when his voice entered my head. I didn't care if he was watching. I pulled my feet up onto the seat with me, tucking my knees under my chin. My hands were still on my ears.

"Leave me alone, damn it... I have to go back and protect Gon, damn you!"

"You abandoned Gon and Kil today, remember? You want nothing to do with them and their 'circus'. You don't want anything to do with them, besides their downfall. Your only desire to do with them is to k-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll have a desire to kill you Illumi. Oh wait, I already do! Don't tell me what I'm thinking, don't tell me what I want to do, and don't tell me what my desires are! I know what they are, before they've been filtered and screwed with in your psychotic, brain-washed, robot, Zoldyck brain!"

"You're a Zoldyck too."

"By blood only. The only siblings I care about are Killua and Alluka, and Kalluto if he'd allow me to care about him. But he's already told me the only person he cares about caring about him is Kikiyo," I left out the fact he'd also told me Killua was on his two-person list. "You, Milluki, Silva, Zeno, Kikiyo, Mike's shit is worth more to me than you all are, combined! Get that through your thick, robotic head, Illumi! I don't care if you think I need training, I don't care if you think I need to go home! Unless I think I need training, or I think I need to go home, I don't need to! Got it!?"

"But you do want to go home, and you know you need training. Don't you Ellilou? You know you were weak and vulnerable during your fight with Hisoka, and the circumstances of the match wouldn't have changed the outcome. You know to be able to protect Kil and Gon like you so dearly desire, you need to be professionally trained to your fullest potential."

"I'm already much more trained than any kid my age should be- any kid any age should be! Believe it or not, there's a world outside of training and assassinating! A world where people don't get shot and blow it off like they'd been bitten by a mosquito! A world where people care about each other, parents love their children and teach them things like how to write a letter instead of how to write a death threat! Where kids play instead of train, unless their training to learn how to play a sport or catch a fish or something! Where families care about each other and siblings bond!" I was on my feet by now, my head slowly hanging. I felt tears come out, panting. "That world is beautiful, Illumi. I want to be a part of that world. Not your world."

"That's not the world you were meant to be in, Ellilou. You were born into the world of assassination, it was where you were destined to be. It's where you belong. You are an assassin, Ellilou. You don't care who you kill, as long as the pay is right. And if it isn't, you don't care to assassinate the low payer to show that you won't be paid bottom dollar."

"Illumi," My voice was low as I slowly lifted my head. "I may not be able to fully deny the fact that by blood and birth certificate, if I have one, I am a Zoldyck. I may not be able to deny that I have assassinated, or that I know how to. I may not be able to deny the fact that I've had assassination training. But I sure as hell can tell you, I am not an assassin."

"We'll change that." I felt the airship starting to lower, so I sat down. I wanted nothing more out of the world than to stab him. If that one final assassination made me an assassin, I'd take the title proudly. When the airship landed, Illumi led me inside. I was silent, literally, as he lead me up to my father. He stood with his arms crossed, and I felt chills go down my spine.

"Illumi, she was given permission to roam free."

"You'll retrieve your permission when you see this." Illumi said, pulling the dvd from his pocket. I followed them inside Silva's room, where they put the dvd into a player. The TV lit up, and there I was. It was high quality, I obviously couldn't pull that the camera had screwed up to cover up some of what had happened. I watched myself brutally be attacked again and again, most of my attempts at attack failing. Watching it made me feel ghost feelings of my injuries.

When the dvd finished, Silva sighed. 'You had eight years of training, and that was the best you could do?"

"You should hear how they talk about Hisoka. He's feared by almost everyone who's heard of him and what he does. He kills people with playing cards, then uses the card for another good fifty murders! Illumi, or should I say Gitteracker, you have to be honest. You have to tell him how strong he is, you were allies in the Hunter Exam!"

"I could have easily snapped him like a twig."

"You could snap anybody like a twig, asshole! Now-"

"There's no need to speak to your brother that way, Ellilou. I don't care how strong this Hisoka person is, your strength is my only concern here. And I am very concerned. Zoldycks are supposed to be unbeatable. He got the satisfaction of defeating you, and it's my fault. I should have punished you for being so disrespectful, not let you go grow weaker. You're also emotionally weaker, we'll have to fix that as well. I hope you've had a nice five years, because your vacation is over."

I knew there was no way I could over power Silva, Zeno, Kikiyo, Illumi, and Kalluto to escape. Not to mention they could sick Mike on me, and not even they could escape Mike, more likely than not. I felt Silva's hands clamp around my wrists. "You will need to train. Then you can bathe Mike."

"Bathe Mike? So your plan is to torture me than have me murdered via chores? You have a twisted mind, old man." That resulted in a good twist to my arms, causing pain to shoot through them.

"Mike won't eat you unless I order him to. So I would watch your mouth, young lady. Now. Illumi, your mother and I are busy. Could you train Ellilou?" Illumi nodded, and I was handed over to Illumi. I was led down to the portion of the house dedicated to training rooms. I was forced to change in a small room connected to it, into a replica of my old training clothes as I wore last time I came to the estate. I came back out, and was cuffed to chains spread-eagle, suspended in the air.

I bit my screams as electricity almost immediately started coursing through the chains, into me. I withheld my reactions as he turned the charge up further and further. He left it pretty damn high, I almost broke when it reached that point in the first place. He must have noticed. He then started lashing at me with the whip. I imagined what Gon and Killua must be doing, probably training with Wing or something. I shouldn't have broken ties with them, then they would have came to check on me or have expected me to do something with them at a certain time. They would have known I would missing and link me back here in one of their weird ways.

Now, Pokkle couldn't reach Gon and Killua to tell them and I was hopeless.

It was a good five hours later the electricity stopped. I had burn marks up my arms, he'd burnt me. I had heavy whip marks all over, not to mention the marks from the electricity now on my wrists and ankles. He released me, and I got dressed into a black t-shirt and knee-length black shorts, with some black strap-on sandals. I found it appropriate for cleaning Mike.

It was starting to turn dark when I was sent out there. I brought a couple of lanterns, which I hung in the trees when I found the lazy magical-best-wolf-thing laying on the ground. I slowly made my way to the beast, gently petting the side of it's face for a moment. i was instructed to scrub his fur with soapy water, then scrub the soap away with clean water. I'd had to drag a couple of buckets and a water hose all the way down. I started my endless job, sighing.

As it got dark, the cold air bit at my wet skin. Mike didn't like baths, therefor water kept going everywhere for various reasons. I wasn't allowed to go inside until it was done though. I was thrown many meters into the trees about thirty times, when I rested in the tree where I landed for a moment. I came down, my skin stinging and bleeding from the tree branches. "Mike, stay still!" Immediately the thing stiffened up. I narrowed my eyes. "Really, it was that easy?"

It was about noon time the next day when I finished. I collapsed onto the ground next to Mike, but before I could catch and sleep Illumi's footsteps came. He stopped about a foot from my head. I looked up at him, not moving from my spread-eagle position on the ground. "What do you want, robot?"

"You should learn some manners, Ellilou. Perhaps your training session will help you remember the ones you were taught. Come on." He turned to walk away as I sat up, still soaking wet.

"Wait, what the hell do you mean come on!? I just finished scrubbing your stupid mutt, I need sleep!"

"You should have thought about that before your long series of inappropriate actions, Ellilou." I growled, standing up.

"Damn it! You'll have to drag me there!" When Illumi turned, I made shooing motions with my hand. "Go on, go on. I didn't mean it literally. Lead me there, master. I'm your slave." He made no comments as he turned and headed towards the Zoldyck Mansion. I sighed, not looking forward to training. I followed him inside and to the training room, knowing to immediately go to the other room to change. After I did, I was fully aware that I was still wet and why.

They'd planned it this whole time, bastards.

After I was chained up, electricity immediately coursed through the chains. And of course, it was fast than I expected. I tensed up, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of any noises. I couldn't. That would just gain me more training than I _already_ had on my plate. As it went, so did the electric whip. I closed my eyes and allowed the sound of the whip cracking and the chains rattling with electricity, along with the charge of electricity, fill my mind. Eventually, focusing completely on it made it easier. Soon enough, I willed myself to become unaware of it by _making_ myself aware of it.

I felt the whip hit my face, across my eyes. It stung to open my eyes. I looked straight into the cold black ones of my older brother Illumi. "What? I never was told I had to keep my eyes open. I thought playing nonchalant to pain was what I was _supposed _to do."

"You seemed to be falling asleep. I had to assure that you weren't." He said, hitting me across the stomach with the whip.

"A simple 'Ellilou' would have gotten me to open my eyes, ya know. You don't _have_ to be a violent asshole of a brother _all_ the time." That earned me a few quick hits, though the seemed just as meaningless as his others. Because, ya know, why would a robot's whippings have meaning.

"I did say your name, repeatedly. You didn't respond."

"Well you shouldn't have interrupted me then, that means I was learning to completely ignore my ? Isn't that what my training is for?"

"True, but you should listen to need to know the difference."

"What is the difference, Illumi? You're my torturer to. And I don't just mean during training. Silva disowned me, yet you tried to force me back at the end of the Hunter Exam. Silva permitted me to leave, yet you called me back by force. You seem to take some emotionless form of pride in providing my training, and you have to _love_ seeing me here. Since it was your goal this whole time. But _why_ was it your goal? _Why_ did you want _me_ back? Why not Killua? Why not focus on training Kalluto? Why do you take such an _interest_ in me?"

"You're further behind than Kil, and therefore have more potential. With your lack of training and ritual, you could be shaped into a better assassin. We can improve what went wrong with Kil within you. We can turn you into a proper assassin."

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'd rather die _starving_ on the _streets_ than _assassinate_ for _**any of you.**_"

"That's not an option. What you desire doesn't matter. Not until what you desire is to assassinate."

"And what if my desire _never_ becomes to assassinate, Illumi? What if I never fit the picture you've painted for me? You can change what I look like by bruises and scars, but you can _never _change me."

"If you never change, than we will have to dispose of you."

"Than do it. Because who I am is solid as stone. Illumi."

"I won't do it until it is proven needed. Until we have done everything it will take to convert you into a proper Zoldyck, your word can not be taken truthfully. Until then, anything you desire or tell us is invalid. Once you've been trained properly, then you will think straight. And then you will have the right desires and opinions."

"What opinion can I have if you change me into your dream assassin? That's not _me__**. **_That's _**your version of me**_. It won't be me who's thinking, it'll be your Ellilou-robot."

"If destroying 'you' is what it takes, than we will go to those limits." Though he'd whipped me all the way through this, when it hit my chest this time I felt my heart beat harder. Not because of the whip, but because of the thought of being someone who I'm not was _**horrifying**_. My mind went blank as to my physical predicament the rest of the time, I was too focused on another thought.

What if Gon and Killua did find out where I was, but it was too late? What if by time they found out, I was already a mindless Zoldyck robot?

That thought didn't sit well at all.

Once training was over, Illumi instructed me to go to Silva's room. I changed into a dark red t-shirt and beige shorts, figuring it didn't matter what I wore, and headed to Silva's room. Once I was in there, Silva motioned for me to sit down. After imagining how my brothers would react to me being as mindless as Illumi was, I didn't have any will to rebel against his orders, I sat down in the chair across from him, not making a sound. He sighed. "You're far behind on your training... But we can't go overboard. So to continue your punishment, there's a section of the house that hasn't been cleaned in a few years," He straightened up as I retained my will to sigh. "So, today that's your job. If you're not done at seven, you won't be eating dinner."

"Yes sir." I said quietly, fully aware that meant no dinner tonight period. I only had a few hours to clean a section of the freaking _mansion_ that I had no idea how to navigate. Silva handed me a piece of paper with a map,which only showed how to get to where he wanted me to clean from his room. I guess there were parts of the house he either was too lazy to have a map made of, or he was hiding them from me, Oh well, that was none of my business. I didn't really care what he had hidden in the house in the first place.

"You're to clean the area in grey on the map. Your cleaning supplies are already there. You're dismissed." I gave him a small nod before heading out of his room, heading towards the section he had in grey. When I got there, I almost dropped the map. It was _filthy_. I had just stepped through the doorway into the hallway which was the start of my cleaning area when a horrible stench filled my nose, and I realized there was grime, spiderwebs, cobwebs, dirt, dust, and a lot of other crap caking the entire hallway, ceiling and all.

He'd actually given me some nice cleaning tools, opposed to the toothbrush and bar of soap I expected. I figured I'd give the floor a basic clean, then clean the walls and ceiling. Then I'd properly clean the floor, since some of the crap would probably fall onto it. The bucket was already full of hot soapy water, and there was a bathroom right outside the door. I sighed, realizing I'd have to clean the shoes I was wearing before I properly cleaned the floor to avoid making matters worse.

I took the mop out and started scrubbing at the floor, applying as much elbow-grease as I could without breaking the mop. After about a half hour I had the seeable layer of grime, and hopefully I'd gotten most of anything that would cake onto my shoes. I had to use the skills they'd taught me to clean the ceiling, cleaning a giant patch then jumping and clinging onto it. Don't ask me to explain, I barely understand how to do it. I ended up with a giant spiderweb in my face, which I calmly swatted away, squashing said spider with my foot. And then I squished the sack of babies I spotted on it's web. I figured it'd be a good idea, since it was a black widow web and we honestly didn't need to have to kick in our immune systems to be ready at any given moment for spider poison to be injected.

I killed all the spiders, obliterated the spider egg sacs, and washed away all their webs. Along with the endless amount of cobwebs that had gathered since the last time this hallway had been cleaned. I spent a good hour and a half scrubbing the ceiling, then I dropped to the floor. Occasionally water dripped on me, though most of it already was on the floor by then. I sighed as I went to refill my bucket so it would be hot again, and clean.

Once I returned, Silva was standing there with a plate of steaming hot food. I was holding the mop bucket in one hand, and I was holding the mop which was sitting in the bucket as well in the other. I kept my face unchanged, with mostly a neutral face. He probably picked up on the irritation included with that. He handed the plate to me. "You've worked hard enough, you can eat. But eat quickly."

I wanted to ask him what the catch was, but I was too hungry. I decided to figure it out myself. I started eating as fast as I could, I didn't even pay attention to what I was eating. About halfway through the plate, I couldn't breath. I stopped for a second, and looked down at my stomach. I tried to take a deep breath, and it expanded. then I let it out. I looked up at him. "Your poison, or drug, whatever it is you put in the food. It tricks the victim into thinking they can't breath. Though, in fact, they can. If they notice their lungs are functioning, it causes overwhelming confusion. Correct?"

"Well done, Ellilou. How did you figure it out? You've never been practiced with that one before."

"It just seemed like the most logical answer. My lungs were expanding and contracting,yet there was no pain. No side affects of being unable to breath came into play, so I figured I was breathing but couldn't feel it. So I knew it had to be something that tricked your brain into thinking something different than the actual fact. So when you use this, you confuse them into thinking they're already dying and either they'll try to fix it and be distracted, or they'll give up. Either coarse makes it easy for you to assassinate them."

"That is correct. You can finish eating, then go back to work. After you finish, it will wear off in about thirty minutes." Silva left after I nodded, and I quickly finished. I set the plate down beside the door and started cleaning the walls. After that, I scrubbed the floor again, blocking myself off into the next section. After following my previous routine, it was nine-seventeen. When I finished cleaning, I turned the corner to see a odd door at the end. Or I assumed it was a door.

This was my last section, so I figured I'd see what it was. I was permitted to be down here anyways. I cleaned the floor the first time, getting a closer look at it. It had more types of security than I could count. Various bars, locks, codes, everything was on it. To avoid being seen with much interest in it, I shrugged and looked away. I finished my routine, finally stopping at the door. I'd accidentally boxed myself in towards the door anyways.

I wouldn't dare touch it, it was almost guaranteed at least a dozen alarms would go off. I closed my eyes, listening closely. Evidently there were no sound-proof walls to it, because I heard the breathing inside of it. I wasn't quite sure as to the gender, because of the distance, the mass between us, and the fact something was off about it. I then heard whoever it was start humming. Another voice starting humming, and it took me a minute to realize it was my own. I knew the tune whoever it was was humming.

Oh no.

After a moment I realized what the tune was. In the handful of moments Killua and I had, there were multiple where he had been upset and I had been trying to comfort him. I hummed a lullaby to him usually, and it seemed to calm him down. I felt an empty feeling for a moment, temporarily letting my predicament wash over me. The thing I wanted the most right now was to be with Killua. But who else knew that lullaby besides him and me? He wasn't locked in there, was he?

No. That wasn't Killua. I realized who it was after a minute, and I stopped. I couldn't believe I had forgotten they'd locked her up in here. I knew I'd seen this door before.

Alluka.

"Alluka..." I said the name quietly, looking at the door. Inside was my younger sister Alluka. She's a bit complicated, and now's not the time to explain her to you. But just a note, the only other person who refers to Alluka as a female is Killua.

I sighed and turned away from the door. I really wanted to go in and see my little sister, but I knew I couldn't. A snowball had a better chance of surviving in _**Hell **_than I had asking to go in. And I knew there was no way to open all those locks and other defense mechanisms without setting off an alarm. Because there was no way I could get them _all_ right. And I already had enough punishment on my plate. "_Sorry, Alluka._"


	13. Endurance X Butterfly X Normal Children

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. And yes, I am probably going to say that every time I post a new chapter. Get over it. xD Anyways.**

**Here's Chapter 13 of The Taken Up Offer. I know I've said it like... constantly, but I r_eally_ appreciate the great reception this story is getting. I honestly didn't expect so many people to like it. I know I really like it, so I'm glad I'm not the only one.**

**This chapter is about... two-hundred ninety words short of 5,000. Great. xD It was almost longer too, but I decided I should probably keep the chapter focused on one general thing at a time, and spread my flashbacks out a bit. So yeah. Well anyway, enjoy~**

**Hey Ellilou...**

Ellilou: ...Are we really going to do this? You've got to be kidding me... *sighs* Lunamon810 is not Togashi and therefor is not the owner of Hunter X Hunter but... *sighs* Damn it... She does 'own' me. Alright there I'm not doing it again.

**Hehe~**

* * *

I walked behind Illumi, not really paying attention to where we were going. He told me something about my training being different today, but I tried not to listen to any of them unless it was a command. I wouldn't let them win, not that easy. I had faith in Gon and Killua that they would come to save me, at some point. They

were smart. Kind of. They would figure out something was wrong soon enough, and Pokkle would find a way to tell them what was going on. Then they'd come save me.

_Crap_. I don't want Gon here. Nor do I want Killua to get sucked back here because of me.

I hate this mind game.

Illumi opened the door to some room, and used a slight motion of his hand to instruct me to go in. When I went inside, I saw some machine and bars high above on the ceiling. I blinked, wondering what the hell _**that**_ was all about. I took a deep breath and continued in, Illumi passing me and standing beside the machine. I followed him, standing a few feet to his right. He was standing at some sort of control panel, which I assumed were connected to the thick, immobile cuffs of the machine. Though there was a giant piece of metal that was currently bent that told me it probably stretched up into the air to raise whoever was in the cuffs,which were only ankle cuffs.

"As I said before, today we'll be testing both strength and endurance. You'll be standing within those cuffs, which will raise you to the bars above. You'll grab onto the bars, and then the cuffs will try to lower. Your to try to hold onto the bars until the cuffs stop pulling. Until you can do so, you won't be leaving this room."

"But you can't be here to manage the machine all day, you have training, food, and probably assassinations."

"That's when Kalluto takes over, then Milluki." Milluki? Hell no. I would be well past _done_ with this exersize by time Milluki was in here. I wouldn't let it take _that_ long.I had no interest in being alone with that fatass. Especially if he gets to train and or torture me. Especially when I'm _cuffed_.

"It won't take that long. Honestly Illumi, have same faith in me. I'm never going to be able to do these exercises or improve my training if you keep putting me down like this." I climbed onto the platform the cuffs were on and stepped into them. pieces inside the cuffs slid out until they were firm around my ankles. Then the machine started raising, and I found it difficult at first to stay standing. I stiffened my knees and put my arms out slightly, just about a foot away from my sides, to keep balanced.

When I reached the bars, I realized they were about the size of monkey bars at a park. I grabbed on tight, my elbows being able to be bent quite a bit since my head wasn't quite a foot from the bars when it stopped. Then the cuffs started lowering, and my arms slowly straightened. I kept an iron grip on the bars, not ready to let go in the slightest. I actually started daydreaming without meaning to. I imagined the bars being Gon and Killua's arms, not because I wanted to hold them tight enough to break, but because I wouldn't have wanted to let them go. I would have wanted to hold on and stay with them.

I snapped out of my daydream when I felt my hands start to slip. I adjusted my hands, holding on tighter. I tried to pull up against the cuffs, but it wasn't working. I was doing good to stay stiff against the urge the cuffs gave me to curl downwards. I felt like my muscles were tearing from the stretching and straining. My arms and fingers felt like they would pop out of their sockets. The tight skin of my stomach strained worse and worse, until I felt like it had ripped. I slowly let go with one hand to feel. It hurt horribly to touch the skin, but it remained unripped. I lifted my hand back up and curled my fingers around the bar.

About fifteen minutes later, my body ached too badly. I wanted to prove to them I could do it on the first try. I bet the other kids hadn't, even though they were probably younger then. They'd probably had more training than I had. I knew it would be a horrible idea to look down, I had as I was going up and Illumi was already almost a little dot, and I still had had a few meters to go. So I decided I wouldn't look as Illumi as I called down. "How old were you all when you started this practice?"

"Nine."

"How many tries did it take Killua?"

"Nineteen."

"What about you, Illumi?"

"It took me eight tries. It took Kalluto fourteen." I knew he'd given me Kalluto's to shut me up, so I went quiet. If Illumi had taken eight, then would it be such a big deal for me to take two? I really would love to show up the family and cover this exercise in one try. But I was pulled so tight that my ribs ached, and my ankles and legs joined my arms and fingers with the feeling of being ready to pop out of socket at any moment. I realized I had no idea _what_ meant I passed.

"How long do I have to do this to pass this exercise anyways? You never stated it."

"Two hours. And as for your next question, you've been at it forty-five minutes." I sighed. That was seventy-five more minutes. I couldn't take seventy five more minutes. I was stretched so tight my skin couldn't expand to let my lungs do such, I could hardly breath.

A bit later, Illumi's voice rang through the room. "You've been at it an hour."

I counted the seconds from then on. About thirteen minutes later, my hands opened. I couldn't go any longer. I was lowered down to the floor again as I rubbed carefully at my aching muscles. Illumi handed me some pill and a bottle of water. I looked at him carefully."It will reset you, so that you can go at it again without the muscle fatigue, tiredness, or pain. It's what we've all done."

I looked at the pill and slowly took it, drinking the water to swallow it.I could have done it without the water, but I was thirsty enough to drink the entire lake-swamp- I don't remember what it was called, alright? I didn't really care - back on Whale Island. Not that I would have, that would've been disgusting. I finished it, and he started the machine back up. As I raised in the air I felt all the pain, discomfort, stretched-ness, everything in my muscles disappear. Holy shit, my family was honest for once. Not that Killua hadn't been honest,but I partially saw him as not in this craptastic family.

I didn't let my eyes leave the bars as I was raised to the ceiling. When I reached them I wrapped my fingers around them. I didn't make them tight enough to strain, I would increase the strength of my grip as the cuffs lowered. I glanced around the bars. These were pretty close together,probably around a third of a foot or so. Though I saw they could vary in space. Some were spaced apart as monkey bars, somewhere meters apart. There were some closer than the ones I was holding on to.

As the cuffs started lowering, my arms stretched back out from where I'd had them bent again. Once they were full length I started adjusting my grip appropriately to the amount the cuffs tried to lower. I was determined to show them I didn't need all of there training, I was strong enough on my own. I didn't _need_ to be as strong as Hisoka. Which, then again, Silva never really discussed what he thought of my match. I didn't care what he thought. I didn't care if I was as strong as Hisoka.

Or did I?

_One hour down._

If Hisoka targeted Gon, I wasn't sure adrenaline would give me enough strength to defeat him and protect Gon, or Killua for that matter. I tightened my grip on the bars. I would have to use their training to my advantage then. I would accept their training so that I could protect my brothers. But I didn't want the Zoldycks to win. Then Illumi, Silva, and everyone else could throw it in my face. They would say I had realized I was a Zoldyck and it was who I wanted to be, even if I wouldn't admit it. _I'm not a Zoldyck._

I immediately tightened my grip to it's fullest when the bars started shaking. I'd only been up here an hour or so, and this hadn't happened last time. The bars around me did it too, and soon they started bending as if they were some type of gel or rope instead. Mine did too, they bucked around insanely. I held on none-the-less. "What the hell, Illumi!? What's with the new add-on to my test!?"

"I'm not doing this," Illumi responded calmly. "There is no way for me to." Something made me believe him. Probably that this wasn't the first time this had happened around me. The floor during my match, the lamp while I was on the phone with Pokkle. Why did this keep happening around me? I knew I wasn't doing it, I couldn't. I didn't know how, and I didn't know why. I closed my eyes, focusing my attention on holding on to the bars.

The bars bucked too high, they even dented the ceiling above me. My eyes opened, as wide as they could be. The bars were straight again, exactly where they had been. I was lowered again, and once again handed the pill and a bottle of water. "That wasn't fair, there was nothing I could do about the bars leaving my hands."

"The bars left your hands, your session starts over. There's nothing we could have done to do that, the bars are solid metal. I suggest you take your pill and start over." I sighed aggravatedly. I had less than forty minutes left, I just had forty more minutes. Then something had to happen to screw that up. _I won't lose this time. Three. That's the number they'll remember._

When I was up where I was supposed to be, I grabbed the bars. Again, my elbows were bent about level with my chin. Slowly, the cuffs lowered again. I held on, and started my grip-adjusting technique when it came time. _One hour and fifty five minutes left_

I hoped Pokkle was getting close to finding a way to tell Gon and Killua where I was. I didn't want their mind games to continue, I didn't want them to change me. And I was afraid they would. I'd been so hellbent on getting stronger than Hisoka for a minute, I forgot myself. I couldn't let that happen again, especially not permanently. That was _**not**_ an option. _One hour and five minutes left._

What if Killua and Gon had gotten hurt in Heaven's Arena? Then what? I wouldn't be there to help them. When that thought occurred to me - which I'm sure I've had it before without paying much attention to it- I felt like the worse older sister to live. But I knew I wasn't, there had to be worse. I'd worked too hard to protect Gon, tried too hard to keep a relationship with Killua before I was disowned and after he found out who I was. I knew there was no way they'd see my like that. But if they did... Would that mean they would come to get me?

That wouldn't happen. Gon would never let that happen, I was sure Killua wouldn't either. _Forty minutes left._

"_Celeste! Celeste!" I sat up as fast as I could, without my assassin speed. I looked directly at the source of the sound, afraid there was something wrong with Gon. When I realized he was smiling, I figured he was alright. I knew my heartbeat was pounding as I gave a sigh of relief. He got on his knees next to me before I could stand up. "Look!" He uncovered whatever was inside his hands, cupping his hands around it. Inside was a small butterfly, yellow with orange-brown detail._

_I smiled, looking at it. "It's pretty. Are they common here?" Gon nodded, smiling. I'd only been here four months now, I was still pretty quiet. I didn't say anything as I watched it, evidently not scared of us as it rested inside his hand calmly, gently opening and closing it's wings. We spent a good ten minutes in peaceful silence, just watching it. It looked so fragile, I knew anybody could crush it with one finger. But I never wanted to do that._

"_Here, you hold it!" He guided it onto my hand before I could object. I gave the younger boy a small smile before looking at the butterfly. He grinned at me, I could see him out of the corner of my eye. "I wonder why it won't fly away." I looked closer at it, and realized there was a crease in one wing that wasn't in the other. I couldn't remember what it was called, but it was a birth defect of a butterfly. It had been a codeword in the Zoldyck family, but I'd done my best to forget those._

"_It's wing... It won't be able to fly. It was born unable to. It's ground-bound..."_

"_Aww..." Gon pouted, then he smiled. "Then how about we ask Aunt Mito if we can keep it?"_

"_Okay." I nodded, slowly standing up so I didn't startle the butterfly. The house was within our sight, so it only took a minute to get there. Gon explained it to her, and she didn't say anything as she went off to the other room. She returned with a jar and a piece cloth. She told us to put some stuff in it, but I didn't pay attention since I figured Gon would take care of that. Which he did. We then cut small holes into the cloth and placed it over the jar, after putting the butterfly inside._

"_There we go! Now we can keep her. What should we name her, Celeste?"_

"_You name her. I'm bad with names." I responded absentmindedly, watching the butterfly. I could hear Gon shake his head behind me._

"_No, you name it!"_

_I sighed, knowing now that he wouldn't take no for an answer. The name left my lips before I could stop it. Then again, it's not like it really mattered. "Ellilou."_

"_Ellilou... It's pretty! I like it. Her name is Ellilou then!" I could hear it in his voice he was grinning. I smiled somewhat sadly, not looking away from the jar. I guess all Ellilou's had bad luck. My family, it's wing. I touched the tip of my fingers to the jar. The name made me feel some type of connection to the poor thing. The liberty of being a butterfly - being able to fly - was taken away from it. There was nothing it could have done to deserve it, it was just a harmless caterpillar in a cocoon before. Just like my liberty to __**live**__ as a human being was taken away by my family. But I fought for my right. The poor butterfly couldn't. I casually rubbed my eyes, ridding them of the tears so that Gon didn't question what was wrong._

I looked up at the bars, imagining the butterfly on them. She couldn't have gotten down, or made it to another bar. She was a butterfly though, she wouldn't have known not to try. She would have jumped and fell, her one wing wouldn't have been enough to break her fall. She would have died. I shook my head, ridding myself of the thoughts. The butterfly had died anyways, so it didn't matter. Her lifespan had ended, she'd been healthy though. Gon had made sure of it. _Twenty minutes._

_I looked over at my five year old brother, noticing something odd about him. He was shaking, and I realized how cold he must be. It was late November, and the whether report called for snow early next week. Without a second thought, I removed my dark purple jacket and got on my knees in front of him. I removed his shredded up blue one, which had been ruined during our assassination mission. He watched me as I put his arms into the sleeves, then zipping it up. I had to roll up the sleeves quite a bit, but at least he wasn't cold. He finally looked up at me, instead of just my hands. "You'll get cold, Ellilou."_

"_It's okay, we don't have too much further to go. I'll be fine. Besides, I wore a long sleeved shirt. You wore a t-shirt," I patted him on the head, smiling. I was only a year older than him, but as we all were forced to grow up quickly I felt older than that. I went to stand up, but decided there was something else I wanted to do first. I knew that on the estate, we couldn't. I hugged him, the desire for us to be normal siblings overwhelming me for the moment. .Once I realized what I was doing, I started to pull away. "S-Sorry, Killua."_

I felt his hands quickly lay on my back. It was brief, but he'd actually hugged me back. That was more than either of us were used to. I stood up, smiling at him. He smiled slightly. "It's okay."

_We continued walking, knowing if we spent too long standing around our parents would know we weren't constantly on the move. We were both silent as we walked up Kukuroo Mountain. After we passed Mike, Kanary, and the Butlers' Quarters, we arrived at our mansion. As we went through the front door, my younger brother's voice broke my thoughts. "Ellilou?"_

_I looked at him, trying to look as if I didn't care about what he had to say, though I made sure I didn't look mad. It's how we looked at each other, as if we didn't care whether each other spoke or not."Hm?"_

"_What we did back there... Is... Is that what normal siblings do?" I nodded, just enough for him to see. I was praying we weren't being watched at the moment. "Does that mean... We can be normal kids too? Like all those kids we see when we go to assassinate?"_

"_We... We're capable of it, yes... But we aren't allowed to be. If we are normal, you can't just __**act**__ like an assassin. You have to __**be**__ an assassin," I hated sounding like my parents, but I had to in case someone was watching. I saw Killua bow his head a little bit, so I kept my voice quiet as I said my next two words. "I'm sorry."_

_He looked up at me, taking a deep breath. "Ellilou? I think there's something wrong with my ankle, could you look at it?"_

_I blinked, fully aware he'd been walking fine. But whatever the reason, he wanted me to look at it. I got on my knees to his left, so that we were sideways to each other, putting one arm around him to keep him balanced. I felt him do the same, and initially assumed it was for balance. As I was pushing up the bottom of his black pants leg to look at the ankle he'd motioned towards, I realized what he was doing. There wasn't anything wrong with his ankle, he wanted me down here with him so I would put my arm around him to keep him balanced, he he could innocently do the same. It was his way of surpassing our parents for some form of a hug._

_None-the-less, I pretended not to notice so our parents wouldn't catch on. I pretended to look at his ankle, gliding my fingers along the skin. Since he wasn't supposed to show pain period, he nodded randomly to indicate where it hurt.I looked up at him and nodded, standing up. "It looks like-"_

"_What are you two doing?" My mother's voice asked, and I turned to look at her._

"_Killua said he thought there was something wrong with his ankle. Typically, we would have went on anyways since no ankle injury could really __**bother**__ any of us, but with the missions he has lined up, we wouldn't want it hindering his thoughts or abilities."_

"_Oh, alright then," My mother nodded. "Then what seems to be wrong with it?"_

"_I think he might have sprained it when he hit his foot jumping over the wall surrounding the house we assassinated at tonight. I nearly miscalculated it's height myself." I was sure Killua knew I had caught onto his plan by now, or else he'd be giving me a look that questioned what I was talking about. He'd cleared that wall completely._

_Our mother nodded. "Well, it's time for bed both of you. I suppose Kil should stay off of his foot for the rest of the night, so I guess I'll have to carry him to bed."_

"_No, you're busy mother. You always are. Ellilou can carry me, she has to pass my room to get to hers anyways. That way you can continue what you were doing before you saw us, and we don't have to disrupt your work anymore."_

I refrained smirking, thinking 'what a suck up'. Not disrespectfully towards my little brother though, you had to do pretty well to suck up without our parents realizing what we're doing and getting scolded for it. Kikiyo shook her head. "She's not strong enough to carry you, she's only a year older-"

"Mother, I can open the first testing gate already. Killua doesn't even way a

_**hundred**__ pounds, more less __**four tons**__."_

_Kikiyo sighed and nodded, waving us on. "Very well, go on you two."_

_Killua looked up at me, and I leaned down to pick him up. I pretended to be very careful with his ankle, so that I wouldn't 'hurt it any worse than it already was'. I headed towards the hallway our rooms were connected to, trying not to look down at Killua too much. I didn't want to give away the fact I was __**happy**__ I got to carry him to bed, instead of being uncaring that I did like I was supposed to be._

_Once I reached his room I leaned so he could open the door for me. We went to his bed, and I sat him down. I helped him remove his right shoe, to make it seem like I was helping make sure his ankle didn't get hurt. After he'd taken off his other shoe and laid down, I watched him as he tried to cover himself with the comforter and blankets, though he pretended to have difficulty adjusting it right due to not being able to work with his ankle. I put a hand on his shoulder and covered him, leaning down to do such so nobody noticed when I kissed his forehead, before leaning up. I smoothed out the blankets, then left the room without a word._

_I felt so much better after that. I felt like I wasn't a worthless sister to him anymore. That feeling had been eating me alive for so long._

I smiled slightly, remembering that. Then I remembered I was looking at white bars above me, and the feeling as if they could read my mind entered him head. I changed my thoughts, not wanting to get busted for that night. Though I probably already had been, due to training the day after. I felt as if nothing was sacred in this house, so the feeling as if they could read my mind wasn't uncommon.

"Ellilou, it's time for Kalluto to take over." Illumi's voice nearly made me jump, and I - stupidly - looked down at them, Kalluto already standing at the controls as Illumi walked towards the door.

"Oh come on, Illumi! I only have ten minutes left, you need to be here for me to show you I can handle this, damn it!"

"You're right, you do only have ten minutes left," Illumi's nonchalant voice remained the same, except for the creepy-sounding hint of having forgotten something and just remembering it that entered it. "Kalluto, the electricity is supposed to be on the final ten minutes."

You have got to be kidding me.

Electricity sparked to life, coursing through me. I held my mouth shut, setting my jaw. I wasn't sure if I wasn't allowed to make noise of if the only instructions were to not let go, but either way I wasn't going to make any mistakes. Illumi stayed, probably thinking I'd fall, but Kalluto also stayed. The charge was a bit more than I was used to, but I kept my grip firm. Though the extra amount of charge made it harder to breath, and my lungs screamed for me to let go so I could, as did my heart. "_I can do this." Are you sure?_ My eyes widened when I heard Illumi's voice.

Then I narrowed them, tightening my jaw. "_Yes, I am sure. How nice of you to drop into my thoughts again. Hope you're enjoying your stay._" _You should let go, Elllilou. You know you can't hold on the final seven minutes._ "_Trying to defend your title, Illumi? It's not going to work. I can hold on._" _You can't_. "_I can. In fact, talking to you is distracting me and making it easier. Not to mention fueling my desire to hold on and prove you __**wrong**_."

I didn't hear Illumi's voice after that. _Five minutes._

I knew I could hold on five more minutes. I had held on for one hundred fifteen already. What was five more? Nothing. Five more was _nothing_. I ran for _hours_ in the Hunter Exam. I jumped off a _boat_ into the _water_ more than once, I'd done it to save Gon when he saved the guy on the way there. I'd been caught by Kurapika and Leorio, but I didn't know I would have been. I _pushed__** Illumi**__, yelled_ at him. I was _stronger_ than they thought. This was my _final_ round of this training. _Three minutes_.

I knew that was probably thinking like an assassin, thinking I could do anything. But in reality, I didn't think I could do _anything._ A lot more than pretty much any kid my age, sure. But not _anything_. But if I could overcome my fear of drowning for Gon, I could overcome my slightly lacking endurance of electricity for myself. _One minute._

I timer went off, and I grinned. Illumi turned from where he'd been leaning against the wall next to the door, leaving the room without a word. Kalluto's voice called up to me instead. "You can let go now, Ellilou."

I released the bars, my hands screaming with stiff, tight pain. I laughed anyways, not caring. I flexed my hands as I was lowered down. I kept laughing, until the cuffs stopped on the bottom. The inside finally retreated back into the bigger metal piece, letting me remove my foot. I had stretch marks on my ankles from the metal holding my skin in place, but I didn't care in the slightest. Kalluto gave me another pill for the muscle pain, and I gladly took it. "Well done, Ellilou. Three tries is even better than Illumi."

I laughed, stretching. I showed them I wasn't a force to be reckoned with today, and that was enough for me. Now maybe they'd see that I was stronger than they thought, and all this training wasn't necessary. _Take that, Illumi._"


	14. Work Outs X Examining Memories X Hatsu?

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. Next chapter of The C- The Taken Up Offer? (God I gotta work on Crest of Trust's sequel, I'm going insane here apparently.) Yep. Don't know if I'll have another one up this week or not, I have to finish editing an amv for Red-chan's birthday on Thurdsay, edit a document for a story me and a friend of mine have worked on, (If you're reading this, you know who you are. I'm so sorry I haven't gotten it done! Busy times.) and I have my anime convention I've likely talked about before this Friday through Sunday. So I have a busy week. But it shall be okay! I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of posting at least one chapter a week. So hopefully that'll be a thing again now that I'm not doing any more traveling!**

**...**

Until Thanksgiving.

**But anyway, enjoy. It's 12:41 AM and I'm tired. I woke up at 5:30 this morning. Or techinically yesterday morning. But whatever. And I only had four hours of sleep because I couldn't fall asleep. So yeah. Haha, haha. Sleep.**

**Disclaimer: I AM STILL NOT TOGASHI. IF I WAS THOUGH, I'D MAKE SURE I CONTINUE HUNTER X HUNTER IN DECEMBER. I DOUBT THAT GREEDY LITTLE THING IS GOING TO DO IT. BUT IF HE DOES I WILL BE HAPPY. I'M DONE NOW. DON'T OWN HUNTER X HUNTER, BUT I'M DONE.**

* * *

The next day, I kept my eyes shut as I heard Illumi click the cuffs closed around my wrists and ankles. Today was going to be a basic electricity-endurance training as I'd already done since I 'returned' home. I was fine with that, it meant I didn't have to prove them wrong again as badly as I did yesterday. Today, I could just relax in good ol' electricity. I took a final deep breath before the electricity switched on. Though the voltage was a good couple notched higher than it should have been from my previous session of this, I didn't twitch when it came on.

"Due to the fact you endured more electricity than we calculated possible yesterday, we saw no problems with turning it up further. Since you seem to be doing so well with it. We might as well not hold you back if you can move further into your training, since you're five years behind already."

"Fine by me. You've gotta do what you've gotta do. You know, like forcing me to come home. And incase your emotionless, robot mind is wondering, no. I'm never going to let that go." With no response from Illumi, the room grew silent besides the sound of the electricity, and the chains shaking from it. I realized after a minute the humming noise I started hearing was _me_, and I didn't bother to stop. I kept trying to figure out what I was humming, and recognized it as the song Alluka was humming.

As I hummed, my thoughts once again drifted from my current predicament.

_The day after Killua's supposed ankle injury, I was instructed to go to training at a different time than usual. It didn't hit me that it was Killua's training time as well until I arrived. Killua was already chained up, and Illumi's eyes glanced at me, then the chains next to Killua, then back at me. Without a word, I went to the chains. After the cuffs were clicked around my wrist, electricity started up on both of us. I knew this meant they'd seen through us last night, they were punishing me by making me fully aware of Killua's pain. It made me want to rip their eyes out and choke them with them._

_Neither of us make noise though, we barely ever even twitched. I heard Killua's chains move more so than just the electricity shaking it though. His fingers were stretching towards my hand, our hands were level. He was raised up higher. I kept my voice straight, and quiet. "You'll be hit by my charge, Killua." He jerked his hand towards mine, and I understood then he didn't care. I stretched my hand as far as it would go, and our fingers laced together._

_The charges from each other didn't go through too badly, I only got a faint trace of his and it seemed to be the same for him. Illumi didn't seem to notice, and I'm not sure we would have cared if he did. It would have been worth it for the moment. I closed my eyes, knowing Killua would probably break at some point. It was uncommon for me to break now, but at his age I did occasionally. And I was sure he was bound to with the upped charge._

_About an hour later, I heard Killua scream. That's what made me flinch. He didn't stop either, and I felt tears coming to my eyes as I listened. The electricity was getting to me too. I knew when he took so long to break it was probably because I was there. I felt my mouth open, and I screamed too. I didn't care if I should of or could have held on longer, I wanted him to know I understood what he was going through._

_We both took a good five or ten minutes to stop screaming, and that was because we both started seeing spots. At least that was what I figured at the time, and he confirmed it later. I pushed as hard as I could to hold on to consciousness, but it soon slipped away from me. Though not before, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Killua's head hang and felt his eyes slack._

I returned to reality, not really wanting to think much further into our punishment. I mentally sighed, bored at this point. I was aware of how badly I wanted to be with Gon and Killua. At least I wouldn't be bored. I remembered how freaked out I was when I saw Killua at the Exam, wanting to avoid him finding out who I was. Now I'd give anything to have had another moment where he knew, another moment of him recognizing me as his sister.

When the electricity was finished, I was led to a room that looked much like a gym. There were weights, treadmills, and other equipment I had no clue as to what it was called. I looked at Illumi, wondering what we were doing in here. I was aware of Kalluto running on one of the treadmill, in a sweatsuit instead of a kimono for the first time I'd ever seen. "For the next three hours, you're to train in here however you see fit. Kalluto will be in here for the first two hours, and I'll be starting my training the remaining hour. Of course, you are welcome to go over your time."

I nodded, and he instructed me to go change into better clothes to exercise. I changed into knee-length khaki shorts and a dark red tank shirt. Illumi had already left, so the weight of being directly watched lifted off of me. I went to the bench press and mindlessly started my work out. I paid no attention to time, nor to what Kalluto did. At my previous stay at the estate, five years ago - ya know, minus the two years at Heaven's Arena, so I guess seven - this was how I got out my frustrations. I typically referred to these at the 'freestyle' sessions, though I didn't quite see it as such. If it was freestyle, I wouldn't be stuck at the estate. I'd probably be exercising outside. Take a nice walk, skate. Ya know. Something normal for a girl my age to do.

"_Celeste!" Gon called, and I turned just in time to see him fall. He tumbled down the rocky side of the cliff. I was on my feet and over there in seconds. I jumped down without hesitation, practically bouncing off the rocks. His ankle was under a boulder he'd apparently knocked loose. I was by his side the second I saw it, taking a deep breath as I put my hands onto the boulder. "Celeste... You can't move it by yourself... You need to... Get Aunt Mito." He said, obviously in pain._

_Without a word I slid my hands down the bolder so that my hands went under the edge, and I picked it up. I threw it at the rock with great force. It shattered immediately, and I blocked Gon from the spray of rocks that resulted from my anger. I looked at his ankle, which thankfully didn't look shattered. Before he could say anything about the boulder I picked him up, heading up the long way so I didn't have to deal with the rocks. "Celeste?" I looked down at him, raising my eyebrows as I walked. "How did you do that? Even with adrenaline, that rock should have been too heavy for both of us combined."_

_I was quiet for a second as I looked back in front of me. I __**couldn't**__ tell him the truth. It __**wasn't**__ an option. "From lifting boxes for mom and dad, probably. I don't know. Maybe I just become really strong when I have adrenaline, more so than other people. Who knows."_

"_It was amazing, Celeste." He grinned up at me, despite his pain. I smiled at him and adjusted my grip on him, unintentionally holding him closer._

"_I'm sorry I couldn't save you, Gon... By time it clicked you wanted me to look over at you-"_

"It's okay! By time I called you, you wouldn't have had enough time to get over to me! You were meters away, there's no way you could of caught me. It's okay though! I think it's a clean break, so it should heal okay!"

_I smiled a little bit. Always an optimist. I could have made it to him though. But I hesitated, because of words preached to me by the Zoldycks. Never jump to save someone unless it will benefit you, friends are unnecessary. All was the only thing between me and insanity, he was the one who kept me from losing control. He was my little brother now. I still hadn't let go of Killua, but I needed to._

The boulder wasn't as heavy as the weight I was using. The weight was about three times the boulder's weight. But even back then I could have lifted heavier, and I have developed more strength over time like a typical human being. I wasn't even breaking a sweat, I probably should have gotten a heavier weight. But I was too comfortable now to get a bigger one, I didn't feel like figuring out which one I really needed.

"_What do we do now, Ellilou? We can't get through the tunnel here. Which means we can't get to the town we need to." KIllua said, looking up at me. For whatever reason, my year-older status also held an inch-or-two-taller status at any given time. We were on an assassination mission, and the train tunnel was our only means of transportation to get there. Getting there by foot wasn't possible, because you'd have to walk through the tunnel. Which is obviously a very well thought out plan for the people who created this problem._

_I stood up, no one else on the train noticing since they were all standing by the windows, starting at the blockage. "Simple, Kil. We move it."_

_We got off the train, opening the door by force. we walked around it to the blockage, and climbed to the top. we started tossing pieces of rock away carelessly, and once I'd made a hole big enough for us to crawl through I went in and started punching the rest further on. After a few minutes, I could hear it falling on the other side. When I punched the last time, I hit a very thin layer and my hand went through. I grinned and pushed the rest away, jumping out. Killua followed me out, and we headed on._

_As we headed into the town, we both saw police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. We could hear people panicking somewhere, and I decided I wanted to know what was going on. We ran - running like normal children so no one caught on to who we were, though after the blockage incident some people probably were wondering - to the chaos. There was a three story building on fire. People were yelling about so-and-so being inside, panicking. I was going to go on, but I saw a girl my age. She was in tears, staring at the building. "Who's in there?"_

"_M-My little brother... He... He's only five..." Killua's age. I put a hand on her shoulder._

"_What's he look like?"_

"_Short brown hair... dark blue eyes... H-He was wearing an orange shirt and grey pants... H-He-"_

"Shh, it's okay. I've got it," I turned to look at Killua. "You stay here, okay? Stay with this girl. I'll be back." Killua nodded, and before anyone could stop me I ran straight-on into the building. The first thing I noticed was part of the second floor had collapsed over a fireman on the bottom floor. I quickly shoved the rubble away and pointed towards the door, not daring to speak so that I'd have to release my breath. I ran upstairs, the smoke clouding my vision.

_Things were going up in flames all over. A little boy was backed into the corner, and he fit my description. I picked him up and bolted out, appearing in front of the girl. She jumped, but I handed her the little boy. I took a deep breath, and smiled at her. "There you go." I went back into the building. I went through the rooms and found three men, two girls older than me and one younger, an older lady, and twin toddlers still inside. I had the two older girls held the younger, and the three men help the older lady. I led them out, and the mother of the toddlers ran to me, carefully taking them from me. She thanked me more times than I cared to count, and I just smiled and nodded._

_I motioned for Kil to follow me as I started to leave. The firefighter from before called after me before I could though. "Wait! Little girl!" I turned to face him as he approached me. "That was a very brave thing you did there. Dangerous, but brave. I don't suggest doing it again, you could get hurt. But thank you. Thank you so much. You saved everyone who was inside."_

_I smiled up at him and nodded, completely aware of the ashes and greyness that had come onto me during the fire. I grabbed Killua's hand and headed on before the news crew got there, not willing to answer any questions. All I knew was, when we completed our assassination, I was washing off my clothes and hair before we left. My parents and Illumi __**couldn't**__ hear about this._

I decided to head to the treadmills now, getting on and turning the speed up quite a bit higher than Kalluto's. I started running, not falling back once.

"_Gon!" I screamed, running past Leorio and Kurapika. I jumped at the last second and grabbed on to his ankles, not caring that we were about to plummet into the water below. __**Damn it Gon.**__ We fell after our momentum started lowering, but before we could plummet into the water Leorio and Kurapika grabbed onto my ankles. The poor guy Gon had went to save nearly did make it to the water though. They reeled us back in, and as soon as we were in a room where water couldn't splash at us. I pinned gon to the wall by his shoulders. "What the __**hell**__ was that!? I know you can't let anyone get hurt but __**damn it **__Gon I almost lost you!"_

"_Celeste, it's okay. You saved me. I knew you would, you always have," Gon smiled at me. "I know it's kind of bad to take advantage of that, but I couldn't let him fall off. I just wanted everyone we could save to make it to the Exam like they want! I never felt afraid when I jumped off, I knew you were right behind me. Even though you're afraid of water."_

_Due to his words, I stopped pinning him to the wall and instead hugged him close. I buried my eyes into his shoulder in case I failed to fight back my tears, but I was able to. I couldn't believe he __**actually**__ depended on me so willingly. After that, I just helped Gon try to make everyone feel better. _

I smiled slightly, thinking of the nutjob that was Gon Freecss. All of what we did, just to find his stupid, worthless, peice-of-shit father. If you can't tell, I'm not Ging 'the famous hunter''s biggest fan. In fact, I wished I could be ordered to assassinate him. That'd be a job I'd take up. Okay, no I would. Gon would be heartbroken. But still. It's a nice thought.

_I sat down, tired of helping the helpless. I went to set down, and glanced sideways at Leorio, who I had a particular hatred for already. Seeing the magazine in his hand, I growled. "Pig." I snapped it out of his hands and ripped it apart, dropping the remains as I walked on._

"_Hey! That was mine! I waited a whole month for that to come out! I spent seven hundred jenny on that!"_

"_I'm sure you have a collection of others you can get the same perverted satisfaction out of when you return home. Until then, keep your mind on the exam. Use your perverted images as ammunition during the Exam. You could make more money and buy more of those if you become a hunter, even multiple copies so that if someone does that you don't have to worry about it. Or if you drool too much."_

_This managed to shut the man up, so I sat down in the corner and hugged my knees, so that those who were knocked out wouldn't fall on me. Closing my eyes, I ignored the fact we were on a boat in the middle of a massive storm. I felt partially doomed, it seemed pretty likely for us to capsize. Then we'd all drown, Gon too. I sighed, resting my chin on my knees before opening my eyes. I needed to stop being such a pessimist and stop thinking about having a watery grave._

_Earlier, while the storm was still in full rage, the captain called the four of us - me, Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika - to him. "As many people want a hunter's license as there are stars in the sky. You think there're enough examiners with enough time to judge 'em all? Not hardly! That's why there are people like me, who not only "drive the bus", but also screen the applicants."_

"_I thought so... I could tell you were hiding __**something**__..."I muttered, but he didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care._

"_The other passengers are all dropouts, and have been reported as such to the committee. If any of them reach the site of the exam by different routes, they'll be turned away," His eyes panned to look at all of us. "Whether you four qualify is my call, too, best you keep that in mind. Now, about my question..."_

_I recalled he was talking about his question earlier, when he asked why we wanted to take the exam and become a hunter. Kurapika went first, Gon having already admitted to him he was here to find his father. "I'm... the last survivor of the Kurta clan. I want to be a hunter so I can capture the Phantom Troupe." I knew who they were. I was told to leave them alone by my parents, and that's saying something._

"_That gang of robbers killed my brethren four years ago!" I blinked, looking over at Kurapika. He didn't seem to be the kind you'd see who had a dark or depressing past. But I had to admit, that was pretty depressing. Poor guy._

"_You're out to be a blacklist hunter,then! The Phantom Troupe is a Class 'A' bounty, even seasoned hunters balk at taking a run at them. Those few who've tried... have died."_

"_I do not fear death," Kurapika went silent for a very brief moment. "What I fear is that my rage will one day fade away."_

_My mind drifted off as Leorio made some stupid comment about not needing to be a hunter to get revenge, and Kurapika informed him he needed the information exclusive to hunters and very few other people. I tuned in for a moment, to hear Leorio's reason. "As it appears our business is your business, Captain, I'll cut right to the chase!"_

"_Thank god, who wants to hear __**you **__ramble all day..." I mumbled, earning harsh elbow from the man since I was between him and Gon. I just kept my face blank, besides glaring at him._

"_I want money- Lots of money! Money gets you anything! A big house! A cool car! Top-grade booze!"_

"_What do __**you**__ know about top-grade booze..." Still mumbling, I recalled my training to be able to keep down alcohol without getting 'drunk'. Not only was it a good defense tactic, it would make it easy to pretend to be drunk. That could both mean someone would say important information thinking you didn't know what was going on or wouldn't remember it, but also meant you could give false information with them thinking you're a truthful drunk._

"_Not a lick of class." Kurapika said, sighing._

"_No kidding." I agreed, nodding, Though Leorio didn't seem to notice me as he turned to face Kurapika._

"_That's the last straw. Step aside, Kurapika. I'll make sure you're the last of the Kurtas."_

"_Leorio!" I said sharply, growling. That wasn't appropriate, in the slightest. And that's coming from me, the queen of rude. That was __**not**__ something you used for an argument or because you were mad. That could made people __**very**__ mad and get him killed._

"_How dare you say that?" Kurapika demanded, sounding deadly mad. Maybe it __**was**__ going to get the asshole killed. They went off to fight, which didn't make me happy. No one should fight during a storm like this. And that's how I ended up saving Gon, jumping between those two before a full-fledged fight broke out to jump off the side of the ship, just to be saved by them because I had to save Gon._

"Stupid Leorio..." I muttered, turning the speed on my treadmill up.

Kalluto looked at me. "Hm?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just thinking of my time outside of the estate." I watched Kalluto turn the speed on his treadmill up now. Wondering if he did it because I did, I turned mine up again. After a bit of a pause to try to make it unobvious, he did too. This pattern continued until Kalluto couldn't keep up a speed any faster. After a moment of adjustment, I was able to run mindlessly.

"_I don't know about that, Gon. See? Zaban's right on the map, can't miss it," Leorio said as he pushed his side of the current argument. The captain had instructed Gon to go to the pine on top of a mountain, which wasn't the ideal direction forgetting to our destination. But the man hadn't been lying, I would have noticed. I'd heard the entire thing. "Why go up there, the opposite way? Best shot's the express bus to Zaban. Climbing up that hill would be a waste of time."_

"Are you sure that's what the captain suggested?"

"_It's what he said. And before you claim something like it being part of the exam or something, I would have known if he was lying," Realizing my slight slip up, I ended up making an on-the-spot excuse. "My parents taught me all the signs to a liar. The wrong heartbeat, the look in their eyes, where they look, how the speak. How they breath. Honestly there's a lot of possibilities to give yourself away, and he had none of them."_

_"Than how do we know you won't prevent those from happening to you? How do we know you won't lie to us?"_

"_Are you __**claiming**__ I'm a liar, Reolio? I'll be happy to show you how good of a liar I can be." I said sharply, but before Leorio could respond Gon interrupted us._

"_I'm sure that's what the captain said. I'm going to check it out. Beats waiting for a bus, if you ask me."_

"Gon, you need to learn not to trust so much. I say we take the bus." As Gon headed on, Kurapika and I followed. When Leorio questioned why Kurapika followed, he said he was interested as to what Gon will do. "Oh come on, Celeste! You have more common sense than this!"

"_I have more common sense than you." I said simply, then started ignoring him and his rage-rambling. Until he ran after us, claiming we shouldn't split up in some sort of panic that told me he had been proven wrong as to which root we should take._

_Eventually, we reached a crumbling place. There were people __**everywhere**__, and I __**knew**__ they were watching. When Kurapika brought it up to Leorio, and Gon confirmed it, I nodded as well. Leorio seemed to strain to hear for a moment. "Well sue me for having normal hearing."_

"I would but I don't see my case holding up in court. You wouldn't have enough money to be worth suing you for anyway." I said carelessly. We were stopped by a lady- who yelled 'time for the mind-boggling two-choice quiz' loud enough to make me want to rip out her vocal chords - and who I like to refer to as those surrounding her as the 'bu-bum' minions. Once some guy passed us, having answered the question I paid absolutely no attention to, we were faced with apparently a very similar question.

_She'd previously informed us that an incorrect answer would result in a one-way ticket back home, so I had no plans of answering incorrectly. Unless, of course, Gon did. Then I'd go home with him. Come up with the correct answer in five seconds, give it to her. Simple as that._

_Too bad the question itself wasn't that simple._

"_Your son and your daughter have been kidnapped, you can only get one back. Which one will you get back? One, your daughter. Two, your son." I immediately recognized the trick from some mind-training at the good ol' Zoldyck estate. In theory, you couldn't answer it. Put into that situation one answer was not better than the other, as each resulted in losing one of your children. Though I was sure my parents would pick their son, no matter which son it would be. Even if it was Alluka. They seemed to value the boys.._

_Silence. Just five seconds of silence. Leorio wasn't happy, I could tell by his heartbeat before he ever said anything. As she counted down, he prepared to attack. "Go on, keep counting down! That's how long you have left, old hag!"_

"Time's up."

_When Leorio lunged at her, Kurapika and I both lunged to stop him. I made it there first, so I grabbed his forearms, easily holding him back. "Why'd you block me!?"_

"Leorio. You need to calm down." I said calmly, unaware I was using the voice I was taught to speak with at the estate. It was very mono-tone, calm. It was to be used no matter the situation, so that we gave nothing away.

"_I won't! I'm pissed!"  
_

"_Leo-"_

"I wanna knock her head off and storm the exam hall! I wanna bust some examiner heads heads and show 'em they're not so hot! Who cares about hunters, anyway! Always slinking around, niffing after bounties! Who needs 'em!"

"_Leorio, you honestly should calm down." Kurapika called from slightly behind him. I nodded, my grip still tight on his forearms._

"_We've passed the test, Leorio. There's no reason for you to bash __**anyone's**__ heads together, except maybe who taught you it was appropriate to act this way."_

"_What!?"_

"_It's simple, Leorio. The only appropriate response, is none. There's no way to decide whether your son or daughter is more important, they're both your kin. Kin you're responsible for, and can not just abandon. It was never said to be a rule that we had to give a spoken response, we just had to hear out the question and let the golden silence shine it's power."_

"_But that snide punk-"_

"She never claimed he passed. She said he could go. Your unsueable bad hearing must not have picked up him screaming a few moments ago. He must have encountered a magical beast, and well... You know what comes after that."

_After the lady had her bu-bum minions reveal the true path, Leorio apologized. I smiled to myself when she admitted that people like him made her job interesting. I __**did**__ have to admit, there was never a __**boring**__ moment around him. Though sometimes, it's better to be bored._

"Such a nutjob..."

"What was that?" I nearly lost my pace when I heard Illumi's voice on the treadmill next to mine. He was now running there, and I slowly looked away from him, back at the monitor on my treadmill. "You were so lost within your thoughts you didn't hear Kalluto leave or me enter. That's not good, you could be easily killed if you aren't paying attention."

"Yes sir. And I wasn't saying anything important, pretty much gibberish." I knew better than to sass Illumi at this point, after recollecting my memories a bit I started to decide against it a bit more. As if it was easy to build up the will to to such in the first place.

"You've been in here an extra hour, you know." Illumi said, not looking at me. "You've been running for quite a bit of that, at a much higher speed than we believed possible for you."

"I guess you guys are wrong about me. And other things." I said, gradually slowing the speed down so I could stop it without face planting.

"Other things?"

"Friends aren't useless. They give you ammunition to push on. I know they've made things easier for me. You should try it sometime. As if that would ever happen." I left the room as I said this, heading to my rarely seen room to shower and change into less sweaty clothes.

A few hours later, I was called to Silva's room. He had a tv mounted on the wall, where a frozen picture of me walking into the arena in Heaven's Arena was displayed. _Oh god._ He motioned for me to sit down, and I was _horribly_ aware of Illumi standing behind me. I watched in silence as I was beaten to a pulp, and I also got to see what it looked like for the ground to lose it's shape beneath me. When it finished, Silva clicked the tv off.

"Up until this battle, you did fairly well in your battles. Though even there there was room for improvement. Those particular battles aren't why you're here, though. The reason your here is _that _battle. You never should have been so easily defeated by anyone, except _possibly_ one of us. Maybe not that easy, even then. Your training will continue at the pace it's at until you're strong enough to defeat Hisoka. Your chore punishments will be put aside until that's over with, your extended training punishments will not. Had anyone known you were a Zoldyck, you would have shamed the family. I feel very ashamed of you, not that that's anything new. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." I said quietly. I was hoping they would be able to give me some explanation as to what the floor and card ordeal was all about, and of course it was Illumi's turn to step in.

"As for what happened with the floor and card within the arena during your battle, and the bars during your previous training, we've concluded that is the type of nen I never taught you about. That would be your hatsu. You will have to learn to control it, as you seem to activate it when you're panicked; resulting in complete chaos."

"Hatsu..."

"As you should remember, you are an-"

"Emitter. Which isn't natural in the Zoldyck family, making me even more of a failure and an abomination to the family. Even though nen isn't necessarily genetic, it's based more on personality than genetics. But, you know, whatever. Not like I could be any more of an outcast in this family if I tried."

"Your hatsu seems to be being able to control the shape of something, which could be useful to you if learn to activate it without having to be panicked and control it." I nodded. Illumi left the room, returning with a bucket of water. "You need to practice sending your aura and nen to the water to move it." I nodded, closing my eyes and focusing. Once I knew I had done as told, I opened my eyes just enough to see the water inside the bucket. With a lot of effort, I made a small bulb raise up, though it wasn't just a circle. It looked like a rope forming out of the water. Very briefly it stayed up though, before splashing back down and splashing me in the face.

"It is going to take a lot of work and practice." Illumi informed me, stating the obvious.

"No kidding."

* * *

**Sorry that this was mostly memories, and memories that happened during the course of the story she didn't go into depth in. I've been reading my cousin's story Hall of Fame and I kinda had this undying urge to write in the parts Ellilou carelessly skipped around because I wanted to see how her existence _would_ change them. Hopefully it's not too unreadable for ya. Hey, I threw in a couple of original memories! So yeah. Hope you enjoyed the 5,420 words I slaved over a 97 page document for. (Yes, this story offically has that many pages. And there have been a couple of thousands of words created once I uploaded the document here to lengthen the chapter, so I'm probably over a hundred pages. And yes, I write the entire story in one document. Then I copy and paste it to another document to download it.) Bye-nii!**


	15. Rematch X Water Training X Home's Memory

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. Time for chapter 15 of The Taken Up Offer. I think it's totally wrong this chapter was so fun to write, but whatever. And lets just remind ourselves this: "Lunamon810 sucks at writing action scenes." So yeah. Just keep that in mind. And sorry it took so long, I didn't write at all during my convention last weekend, and I've been getting settled back in. I think I started on this chapter like... Yesterday? Probably yesterday. Anyway, I gotta get back on school work, so, enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: I AM STILL NOT TOGASHI, STILL DON'T OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

About a week later, I stood inside one of the many large, nearly empty room. I had someone deliver twenty or so buckets of water into the room, so that I could practice my hatsu. I closed my eyes, focusing on the water, and slowly lifted it up in the air, combining it. I had to move with the water a bit, keeps my palms outwards to keep my focus point near. I made the water into a large line,spinning it around me in a large ring afterwards. I guided it all around the room, keeping focused. I had it whip around me constantly for a moment, which wasn't the best for my drowning fear, but then I brought one palm up and the other near my side, sending all of the water up. I then let the snake-like formation shatter, sending sprinkles of water everywhere. I turned to look at Illumi, who I knew had came in in the very beginning. "So? How was that?"

"Assuming the ending of your 'performance' was intentional, you did much better than I expected you to in the amount of time you've practiced your hatsu." I grinned, fist-pumping in the air that still contained small water droplets. I looked at him, crossing my arms and smirking.

"See, I'm not as weak and worthless as you Zoldycks think I am. I can exceed your expectations left and right. Which is why you should let me go, I don't need your training."

"Our expectations are much lower than where you need to be. Though you're better than we'd first assumed, we assumed you were absolutely no where near where you would be if you had stayed home and trained the previous five years. All you've done is shown our estimate was off. You're still no where close to where you should be."

"You just can't look at the positive side, can you Illumi?" I stopped, listening to the footsteps I could hear elsewhere in the estate. They were familiar, but not one of the Zoldyck family or staff. They were ones I'd encountered since I was thrown out. Not Gon's or Aunt Mito's, Killua was a Zoldyck and I probably wouldn't hear him, not Pokkle or Zushi's. So who was it?

"Ellilou." I realized Illumi had been talking. I looked up at him. "I told you to follow me."

"Sorry, yes sir." I said, following behind him as he walked into the hallway. I followed him down many hallways and a flight of stairs, then another one after many more hallways. Was he leading me to where the footsteps had been? There was a second set of footsteps with them, ones I didn't know. What exactly was going on here? I knew it couldn't be anything good. Nothing good ever happened in the Zoldyck Estate, especially if Killua wasn't there.

As we turned the corner, I stopped. There stood the crazy-ass magician, in all of his creepy-ass glory. I flexed my fingers as they turned into claws, immediately going into defense mode. What the hell was he doing here? Behind him to his left, leaning against the wall, was a girl a good amount younger than him, a teenager. She had curly dark brown hair, but she had the same goldish-yellow eyes. Her face was similar to Hisoka's, but calmer and softer. She didn't hold any of the creepy or insane factors Hisoka did. She even dressed somewhat normally; a light brown fur jacket, a dark brown shirt. and dark brown pants covering black boots. Her arms were crossed, but I noticed she had black leather gloves on.

"How nice to see you, Hisoka. And you brought a friend. Wonderful."

"I'm not his friend, I'm his sister. You think I would come here with this crazy-ass-magician if I was just a friend? Hell no. I'm just here as an ambulance if he gets his careless ass kicked."

I had to struggle to stifle my laughter. I pointed to her, looking at Illumi. "I like her. Not so much her brother, but I like her."

"Hn. Well, lets get you two out back so you don't destroy the inside of the house."

"What do you mean? It's not like we're trying to kill each other. Yet. As long as he doesn't do anything-" Then it hit me. I was infuriated, to say the least. "I have to fight him!?"

Illumi just nodded and started leaning us out, Hisoka followed next to him, so me and his sister followed behind them. His sister mumbled something, so I looked at her. "What was that?"

"I said," She said sharply. "Are all brothers this stupid? Seriously, mine is always getting into fights. And yours likes scheduling his matches, it seems."

"All my brothers are stupid, and I have four of them. They're all idiots, some more than others. Even the youngest Kalluto is stupid, he's kinda brainwashed in my opinion. All he does is follow our mom around and act like a robot that follows our mother's orders. Ugh. It's so irritating!"

"My brother is always killing someone. Because he challenges everyone strong enough for his tastes, and then defeats them by killing them," Her eyes widened, then she grinned nervously. "Don't worry about it though! I mean, uh, you're a Zoldyck, right? There's no way he can kill you! Besides, he spared in in Heaven's Arena! So even if he could defeat you he would spare- I'm not helping am I?"

"Nope, not really. But hey, thanks for the pep talk." I shrugged at her and kept walking. "Besides, due to Heaven's Arena, I have a score to settle and a point to still prove. Even if that point doesn't matter anymore. So I have more fuel this time. Not to mention training."

"What do you mean the point doesn't matter anymore? Whatever the point was, you seemed pretty hell-bent to prove it in Heaven's Arena. What could have possibly made it fade?"

"Well... My point was to prove I could protect my brothers, Killua and Gon. Well, I mean, Gon isn't my brother by blood. But I consider him one. And well... I can't see them anymore. Illumi made me come home, so I've seen them for the last time it seems. But I still should prove that if I was around, I would be able to kick his ass if he tried to hurt my brother."

"Hn, so all brothers are assholes too? Good to know." I stifled laughter again as we emerged into the courtyard. "So, your name's either Celeste or Ellilou. Which is it?"

"Yes."

"But... I asked you which."

"I've gone by both, and both meana lot to me. Celeste is what Gon knew me as, and Ellilou is what Killua knew me as. So. Yes."

"Ah. Well, I'll call you Ellilou so I don't tread on Gon's ground."

"Alright, so then what's your name?" I asked, looking at her. "It's only fair, I told you _both_ of mine. Or at least confimed them."

"So Hisoka really didn't talk about me in the Exam? Figured. My name is Hayden." At this point we reached the middle of the yard, and Illumi motioned for Hayden to come by her. They walked a fair amount away, and Illumi spoke loud enough for us to hear. "You're to fight until one passes out, dies, or cries mercy." _Dies?_ _**Thanks Illumi.**_

I nearly jumped when his voice came to my mind with one word, then left with the same speed it'd came. _Focus._

As soon as we were signaled to fight, I was behind Hisoka and got a good slash at his neck with my claws. he turn and jumped back to space us, and started throwing cards at me. I caught them all, then sent them back. When they reached him I used them to bind his wrists and ankles together, so that all he could do was hop. I moved behind him and kicked him from behind, knocking him to the ground. He was still grinning when I kicked him onto his back, so I kicked his head hard, making one of his ears bleed and a tooth or two fly out.

I felt bad that Hayden had to watch this, I could tell she loved her brother no matter how badly he annoyed her. I looked over at her, her face stern and mad, her eye twitching. Ignoring her again, I ripped him up onto his feet and slammed my foot into his ribs. He stumbled, but kept from falling to the ground. I knew I'd broken a few ribs though. I jumped up and disappeared, then slammed down onto his shoulders with his feet. I heard some bone crack, but that wasn't enough to make him die, faint, or call mercy.

I took his left arm and twisted it as hard as I could, bending the bone much further than it should go. I heard it snap, and growled. "What'd you do to Gon, Hisoka? Did you fight him?"

"Yes, just a few days ago."

"Is he alive? I swear to god clown if you killed him-"

"The kid is very much alive, do not worry. But why does it matter? You can't be there to protect him anymore, so he'll die. He can't survive in this world, not unless he has the proper training."

"That's not for you to judge, Hisoka. That's for us all to find out. I could kill you right now," I held my claws at the back of his neck, holding his broken arm with my left hand, letting the tips of my claws touch his neck so that small trails of blood trickled down his neck. "Does that mean _you_ weren't ready? That _you_ weren't strong enough? That _you_ didn't have the proper training?"

"I suppose it does."

"Just remember, _**Hisoka**_, there is _always_ someone stronger than you. There is someone stronger than everyone, whether it be physically, emotionally, mentally. _Always_. Just like I will _always_ protect my brothers, whether I can be with them or not. One way to protect them, would be killing you right now." I ripped his arm off completely throwing it aside. I heard Hayden scream, mostly of anger. For some reason, that didn't matter to me though. "How does that make you feel, _Hisoka_?"

"_Thrilled_." I growled, shredding at his back with my claws. I used his cards to bind his wrist to the ground with my hatsu.

"Can the dead be thrilled, Hisoka!?" After a few minutes of just slashing at him, including rolling him over so that I broke his other shoulder and slashed at his chest and stomach, I heard Illumi's voice again. _Ellilou. He's been calling mercy._ Slowly, I stood up and backed away from Hisoka's heavily bleeding body. He was still awake, and watching me. Hayden ran at him, dropping to her knees next to him. She called someone on her phone as I watched, horrified by myself losing control again. She looked up at me after hanging up.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Elliot!? He called mercy at least thirty times!"

"My name is Ellilou." I said, keeping my voice deep.

"I don't fucking care! Do you see what you've done to my brother!? What the hell! You were told to stop once your opponent called mercy, passed out, or died. Not continue after mercy _until_ he passed out or died! Damn it!"

"I'm sorry." I said quietly, and I walked towards the house. As I passed Illumi, I heard him say something that sent chills down my back at the thought of it.

"You need to learn to control your emotions, Ellilou." That would make me like him. I _never_ wanted to be like him, even if it made me the psychopath I just displayed.

I walked inside, realizing I was caked in blood. I took a shower, scrubbing the Hisoka blood away. A thought that crossed my mind that made me freeze, ignoring the soapy water flowing to my eyes. _Would Gon hate me after seeing me lose control like that? Would he still want to be around me? _The final one was the worst though._ Would he be afraid of me?_

I felt tears come to my eyes, starting to wash the soap out of them. I ignored the soap in my eyes as I tried to finish my shower, though I had started crying. At least it would be harder for the Zoldycks to tell I'd cried if I'd cried in the shower. I never wanted Gon to be afraid of me. I'd rather be dead than him be afraid I'd hurt him or someone he cared about. Or be upset with me.

When I'd finally calmed myself down I finished up my shower and dried off. After getting dressed I brushed my hair out until it wouldn't get caught, since my hair had a tendency to cause me issues. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were different than when I'd walked in. When I walked in, my eyes still had the blood thirst from the fight. The will to kill. They were a bit darker as well. But now they were their typical shade, and they were calm. Then I noticed, there was something within the calmness I hadn't registered within my mind. _Fear_.

What was I afraid of? Was it Gon's opinion? Was it what my family was going to say about the fight, whether it be praising me which would make me feel like a bad person because they approved, or negative because I disobeyed? I wasn't sure _what_ I was afraid of. But I knew I was.

After a minute or two of trying to disguise it so my family couldn't see it, I gave up. I couldn't hide my emotions like Illumi did, then again he also could have just shut them off some how. Wouldn't put it past him. I left the bathroom, to be met by the emotionless man himself. He motioned me to follow him, and I assumed this meant I would be working on my normal training. When he opened the door to some room - god help whoever had to design this house - I froze. Inside was a metal bar which I was familiar with, along with a glass tank full of water.

Pretty soon after they'd caught Killua and I hugging, they started doing this to me. I'd be tied to the metal it would be lowered to the water below. I'd be left there for as long as I could hold my breath, they would take me out when I opened my mouth. I hated the training, because of my fear of drowning. My longest records was an hour, but it was absolutely terrifying. I knew if it was actually someone interrogating me or I was drowning, I wouldn't be calm enough to go that long.

"I'll have to train you to not reveal your fears, if they were trying to figure out which form of torture or interrogation would work best on you, your eyes would give it away."

"Yes sir." I said quietly. He led me up the mental stairs, and I went first across the metal bar, walking carefully. I didn't put my arms out, that would look stupid in front of my family. Illumi tied the ropes firmly around my ankles, and walked back off. I was now aware my entire family was here, minus Killua, Milluki, and Alluka of course. Illumi motioned for me to jump, so I did. The rope harshly tugged when I reached it's limit, keeping me about a couple of meters above the water.

After the rope stopped swinging, and I was positioned over the water, the bar started lowering. I closed my eyes, not wanting to let panic set in from watching the water get closer. I felt the water touch my hair, crawling up further and further. When it reached my forehead I took a deep breath, and felt my nose and mouth soon be covered. When my waist reached the water, it stopped. I kept my eyes shut, ignoring the fact I was surrounded by water.

"_Celeste! Celeste!"I heard Gon call. I turned, releasing the magnolia flower that had fallen into my cupped hands. He ran to me and hugged me first, which he commonly did, then pulled away and opened his hands. Inside were some berries, and he took my hand and handed me half of them. "I pick these berries every year and Aunt Mito makes a pie out of them! Try some!"_

_Listening to the eager younger boy, I ate a few of the berries he handed me. I smiled, they had a sweet taste to them. I slowly popped the rest in my mouth one-by-one as Gon led me to the bushes he picked them from. I helped him fill the baskets, as he eagerly talked of the pies Aunt Mito made from different things and when she made them. He somehow got on the subject of the blankets his grandmother made, then the subject of his father. "He... died in a car wreck... I wish I'd gotten to know him..."_

_I could hear the tears in the younger boy's voice, so I immediately hugged him. I was careful not to knock the baskets of berries over as I did so, and pulled him closer. "It's okay Gon... I'm sure he would have loved you, and you would have loved him. I bet you would have been even closer than me and my parents, and we were pretty close. Maybe not as close as them and their trading, but we were really close." I laughed nervously, and he wiped his tears away with his sleeve._

"_I'm sorry, Celeste. I should think, your parents left you here... Mine didn't have a choice..."_

"_Nah, it's okay Gon. It doesn't bother me when you're upset about your dad, at least I know my parents are out there somewhere. I can see how hard it is for your parents to be dead. It's okay to be upset about it. I'll be right here for you." I smiled at him, and he looked over at me and smiled. he hugged me, managing to get us closer._

"_I love you, Celeste. You're just like having an older sister! I'm glad I found you that night, I've never had a sibling. So it's really nice to have you around!"_

"_I-...I love you too, Gon. I'm glad you found me too. I'd be lost without you." Which is why I couldn't tell him that I knew Aunt Mito was lying when she told Gon he'd died in a car wreck every time Gon brought it up. I didn't want him to feel betrayed by her lying,something told me she was lying for a good reason. I didn't want his father to be alive either, I was afraid his father would come home and I'd be asked to leave or would be forgotten. I never wanted that to happen._

Stupid Ging. Stupid Kite. Stupid, stupid Gon! Why did we have to find his father anyways? He obviously wanted nothing to do with Gon if he hadn't come to see him or _anything_. And if it wasn't for Ging - or Kite who just _**had**_ to tell Gon that Ging was alive - we wouldn't have come to the Hunter Exam and therefore Illumi wouldn't have made me come home. But_ no_. Thanks to those assholes -especially Ging-, I was upside down in a _water tank_ holding my breath for _**dear life**_!

And I still held the fear of being forgotten because of him.

_I heard Gon yawn as he sat up, probably looking over at me. It was the middle of the night, so I wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten woke up. I remained curled in a ball under my covers, having had a nightmare about being at the Estate, and being punished for getting thrown out. I felt Gon crawl on top of my bed, sitting just past the edge. "Celeste, what's wrong/"_

_It was then I realized being there and being punished wasn't what was wrong. In my nightmare, the Zoldycks had killed Gon in front of me, brutally. They'd beaten him, tortured him. And I couldn't move. As that part of the nightmare cameinto my mind, I sat up and hugged Gon close. I would __**never**__ let the Zoldycks __**touch**__ Gon. I would __**never**__ let them hurt him. He didn't deserve their horrible treatment, he deserved the treatment he got here on Whale Island. He was too sweet to deserve the torture, more less death._

"_Are you okay, Celeste? You're shaking," I realized he was right, I was shaking from three things. Fear of losing Gon, anger towards the Zoldycks, and tears at the thought of Gon getting hurt. I hugged him closer in response, not sure what to say. I didn't want to lie to him, he would know I was lying anyways. "Aww, you're crying, Celeste! You never cry, what's wrong?"_

"_I-It was just a nightmare, Gon. Don't worry about it." I said roughly, trying to talk straight despite the tears. Misrebly failing, I started crying harder as I recalled what he looked like. He looked up at me, and I slowly looked at him. Seeing him completely free of bruises, cuts, blood, and everything else I'd seen, I recovered a little bit._

"_What was your nightmare about, Celeste?"_

"_It doesn't m-"_

_"Celeeeste," Gon whined. "Don't tell me it doesn't matter. Tell me what happened."_

_I knew Gon too well by this point; I knew he wouldn't let this go. I calmed down my crying, sniffling a little bit."I-I... These people kidnapped us. They were mad at me for something, so they punished me. I was whipped, cut, electricuted... But I never died or passed they made me watch them do it all to you, if not worse things... They beat you and tortured you and then... Y-Y... You died."_

_Gon snuggled against me and looked up at me; acting much like a puppy. "Aww, it's okay Celeste! I'm right here. Nothing ever going to happen to you or me, especially not like that. I promise. Okay?"_

_Although I knew that was a promise he most likely couldn't keep, I nodded, sniffling. "Okay, Gon."_

I tried to refrain from showing signs of my thoughts while I hung upside down in the tank. I was sure I was being watched, so I couldn't let them think the training was getting to me. I tried to ignore the cold water around me, because I knew focusing on it would do no good. I went back to my memories, finding them much warmer.

_I felt the rain drops start to hit me, which confirmed Gon's storm prediction. There wasn't enough time to get to Mito's house without getting soaked, without revealing I had assassin's speed anyways, so I picked Gon up and rushed into one of the many caves along the side of the mountain. It was about the size of a small bedroom, so I brought us to the back of it. I sat Gon down, and watched as rain poured down outside. Wind picked up, but thankfully we were far back enough not to get wet. It was cold though, and I hadn't brought my jacket._

"_Aunt Mito's going to be worried about us, Celeste!"_

"_I told her when you made the storm prediction that if it started raining we might take shelter elsewhere, so don't worry. She'll be fine," I didn't realize I was shivering until I felt Gon drape his jacket across my shoulders. I looked at him. "Gon, you need to keep w-"_

"_I'll be fine!" He said smiling, sitting directly in front of me since I was sitting on my knees. I smiled slightly and hugged him, rubbing his arms a little bit in some attempt to keep him warm. I looked at him when he slacked, and realized he was asleep. I smiled and picked him up, draping the jacket over our heads. I held it tight, held him close, and bolted out of the cave up to Mito's house. I knocked on the door, and she looke shocked as she opened the door._

"_I thought you two were taking sh- Gon!"_

"_Don't worry, he's just sleeping. We took shelter in a cave for a bit, but when he fell asleep I decided we should get home. I found a chain of trees to get most of the way here, and his jacket helped keep us dry." I said, handing it to her. I'd purposely gotten it wet to hold our story._

"_Alright, wel... Hurry up and get inside before you two get sick!" I nodded and went inside and took my shoes off. I carred Gon up the stairs and to our bedroom, laying him on his be and covering him once we reached it. After a few minutes of sitting on the edge of my bed, I smelt food cooking downstairs. I went down to the kitchen, to see Aunt Mito stirring the soup._

"_Do you need any-" Aunt Mito jumped, having not heard me come in. "...help?"_

"_You need to warn me when you come in, you nearly gave me a hard attack!" She said, before turning to look at me. "Will you get the spices for grandma's vegetable soup recipe for me? You know the ones, right?" I nodded as she went back to focusing on stirring. I calmly went around the kitchen, collecting the spices. I had to use the stepping stool occasionally, but besides that I had no difficulties. I laid the spices out next to Mito, and watched her stir. She had me get the corn out, then she had me get the ingredients for a cinnamon apple pie._

_After our long list of actions to cook dinner, I helped Mito set the table. Once we'd laid the food out, we got grandma and the three of us sat down. We had decided to let Gon rest for right now, thinking he needed the sleep. When we started praying, I thought about how I'd told Silva I'd rather die starving on the streets than assassinate for him. Not only did I never starve, but this wasn't the streets at all. This was a lot more of a home than the estate ever was._

_Gon walked in after a few minutes, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He looked at us, yawning. "How come no one woke me up for dinner?"_

"_We figured you needed sleep. Sit down and eat, doofus." I said, before returning to eating. He sat down, and began eating after he prayed. I smiled, looking at Gon out of the corner of my eye. "Yeah, this a lot more like a home." I thought, before looking back down at my food._

It was getting harder and harder to not try to breath. I felt my mouth open after a while longer, and waited to be pulled up. But I remained exactly where I was. _**What?**_

I hate my family.


	16. Rescue Crew X Freaking Pokkle! X Mito

**Hey guys, Lunamon810 here. So, a lot of people had issues with the previous chapter, and for good reason. But there is an in-story reason for her being able to beat Hisoka, and it is explained in this chapter. So please don't rage-quit on this story yet. xD Also, just to avoid confusion. The story starts out in Killua's point of view, then after the line is in Ellilou's point of view, and is for the rest of the chapter. Okies? Okies. And you can thank my worry about people stopping reading the story because of the previous chapter for having two chapters within 76 hours. So yeah. Alright, enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: I STILL DON'T OWN HUNTER X HUNTER.**

* * *

**Killua's P.O.V**

I had Gon on my back, storming through the estate with me. Pokkle was waiting outside the gates for us, and we already had our airship tickets. I kept searching around, checking the different rooms. Where was Ellilou? I checked all of our normal training rooms, then all the specific types of training rooms. I wanted my sister, damn it. They didn't deserve her, she didn't deserve her abuse. I burst through one door,and first assumed it to be empty. Then I realized, the metal bar to the water tank was lowered. Hanging from it's rope was my older sister.

I was infuriated immediately. Gon jumped off my back before I race up the metal stairs. I lifted the metal bar until she was above the water. I was even angrier when I realized she was passed out. They knew she hated this training, and they probably even knew she was afraid of it. At least one person was suppose to stay and wait for the trainee to open their mouth so that they knew to lift them out of the water. Instead, she was alone in here and nobody was here to lift her out. I crossed the metal bar and reeled her up, checking that she was breathing immediately.

After I did the heimlich to squeeze the excess water out of her, she woke up. She looked at me, wiping the water out of her eyes. She seemed a bit dazed as she looked at me. "K-Killua?"

"Lets get you out of here." I said, grinning at her. I stood up and extended my hand for hers, helping her up. We both heard footsteps, so we rushed off the metal bar and grabbed the towels off the platform before clearing the stairs completely. She already had her hair tried by time we reached Gon, so she tossed the towel aside and I tossed her the one I was holding. I picked up Gon as she dried her shirt off, and we bolted through the estate. She tossed that towel aside too, and we soon were out the front door.

We were close to the gate when we were met by our asshole of an older brother Illumi, who stared right at Ellilou. She started backing up as he walked towards her, but I quickly stepped between them. Gon jumped off my back again, and pushed me out of the way when I froze. He glared right at Illumi. "You leave Ellilou alone!"

* * *

I stared at Gon in front of me, still a bit shocked by their sudden rescue. I looked over at my brother, who looked frustrated at himself for freezing. I looked back forward just in time to see Illumi send needles flying at Gon. I tackled Gon to the ground, one of the needles scraping my cheek from front to back in the process. I looked up at Illumi. "You will leave Gon alone, Illumi. You're issues are with me, and you will consider the situation as such. If you do hurt Gon, you will get to experience what happened to Hisoka first hand. Understand, Illumi?"

"You will not hurt me. You know better than to take on an opponent stronger than you. You won't attack me. You need to let go of the boy, show them the way out, and return to your room until your consequences for trying to escape are decided."

I narrowed my eyes, standing up. Gon shot to his feet, but I shoved him at Killua. "I do, do I? Well you know what, Illumi? I've told you all once, and I _will_ tell you again. I would rather die on the streets than survive like_ this_. I'll die escaping than do what you say I 'need' to do." I flexed my hands, moving the right one in a half circle until the palm of my right touched the back of my left, palms pointed towards Illumi. I was trying to morph the tree so that it bent around Illumi, but he'd dodged too quickly.

Suddenly he was behind me, and he slammed his foot into my back. I slammed into the ground, but instantly got onto my feat. I turned around to counterattack, but he was already gone. I felt needles pierce across my shoulder blades, and screamed as my skin and muscle started morphing. I quickly yanked them out- though it wasn't so clean - and threw them at the tree Illumi was standing in front of a moment ago. I then saw he was sending a spray of needles at Gon. I lurched, knocking Gon to the ground just in time to save him. Though in the process, the needles had shredded my arms, since my dark blue sleeveless shirt didn't protect them.

I jumped to my feet and started morphing the ground beneath Illumi, but he was too fast. Even when I tried to morph the ground he was heading towards, he knew to dodge somewhere else. Knowing this act would get us no where, I slammed the testing gate open and shoved my brothers out first. As I went to follow them, I felt hands calmly yet maliciously wrap around my neck. I looked down at them, expecting to see Illumi's. I was wrong.." Hisoka?"

The doors slammed shut before Gon, Killua, or I could do anything. I struggled against the hands around my throat, but he just tightened them. "Now, now dear. Calm down. You'll force my hand to kill you if you keep struggling."

"Y-You can't kill me," I coughed through his tight grip, clawing at his hands. "I beat you in our match! You hardly laid a punch!"

"Don't you get it, dear? It was a set up. Your older brother believed that building up your confidence than breaking it down would help improve you. I can see the potential. Tell me, is it working?" Was he telling the truth? Had Illumi set me up for failure? "And since I've spilt part of the can, allow me to spill the rest of the beans. Your not as in control of your hatsu as you believe either. Your strength is being influenced by the people around you, purposely for the most part."

"Let me go, c-creepy-ass clown!" It was getting harder and harder to protest with his grip, and I was still struggling. I heard someone walk beside us, but I could tell it wasn't Illumi by their heartbeat and they way they walked. And the fact I could hear them breath, have a heartbeat, or walk. The door opened once again, and Killua and Gon stampeded back through. The doors almost immediately shut behind them, but before they could get much further I saw Hisoka's sister slam her foot into Gon's chest, sending him into the testing gate. He slumped down, which is when Hisoka's grip loosened- Oh no, his precious fruit was bruised! - and I got free.

I was immediately by Gon, making sure he was okay. Thankfully, he was only sore and bruising. Besides that he was together, awake, and not bleeding. As he stood up, I saw Killua fighting Hayden. Killua easily kept up with her pace, she was no where near the level the Zoldycks or Hisoka was. But he seemed to be taking his time defeating her. When I saw Illumi watching, I quickly took over their fight. "Playing babysitter for your baby brother, Elliot?"

"Ellilot? My name is Ellilou, dumbass." I said, keeping just past her pace.

"I know. But I don't like you," Hayden responded, trying and failing to give me a black eye. "I did enjoy the look on your face when you saw me slam your brat into the wall though. And that was when I firmly slammed my foot into her chest, sending her into the testing gate as she had Gon.I was by her side just as quick as I had been Gon's, but that was to position my boot over her throat, since she'd fallen to her back. I suddenly felt a presence behind me and felt a card positioned close to my neck.

"You can step away from my sister now, Ellilou." I looked at Illumi out of the corner of my eye. Which option did he want? Kill her? Hurt her further? Or spare her? Did I obey Hisoka and Illumi, or did they have separate ideas? I closed my eyes, trying to focus on my decision. Disobeying either of them could be fatal. I slowly lifted my foot off her throat, and Hisoka slowly pulled the card away. I felt a drop of blood slide down, meaning he'd gotten to close. I wiped it away as I stepped away from the girl, looking at Illumi. He seemed unchanged, so I assumed he either wanted me to do that or didn't care.

Probably the ladder. He cares about nothing.

I jumped over Hayden and landed in front of my brothers, putting my arms out to protect them from the spray of needles going their way. I quickly plucked the needles way, and returned to my stance. "Let them go, Illumi! I'll stay here, just let them go!"

"Kil needs to stay home and be reminded that he shouldn't take on opponents strong than him; he's done so by trying to take you from us."

"Just let him go, damn it! It's my fault they came, If I hadn't gotten them attached to me, they never would have seen a point in coming to save me! If I'd controlled my emotions like you tell me to, I wouldn't have gotten them attached to me! If I'd kept my mouth shut like I should have five years ago, I would have never even met Gon! And if I'd obeyed all of you, Killua and I wouldn't care about each other! This is my fault, _**punish me**_!"

I wasn't sure if I meant what I said or not at that moment. It didn't matter, I needed to do anything I could to protect my brothers and get them out of there. I started shaking as the images from the nightmare I'd had years ago on Whale Island in which the Zoldycks tortured Gon entered my mind. "Just. Let. Them. Go."

"You can not command me, Ellilou. You should know better than to tell those older and stronger than you what to do."

"Yes sir. I apologize for it to have come across that way. Illumi, please. Let them go." I nearly jumped when I felt someone hug me from behind, and I looked down to see Gon's arms wrapped around me.

"This is about your nightmare, isn't it? The one you had so many times? I could always tell when it was that one because you acted differently in your sleep. These are the people who tortured me, right? The Zoldycks? Ellilou, I promise. Nothing's going to happen to us. You don't have to lower yourself to him for this."

"I just want you two to get out of here safely, Gon. I don't care what it takes. I just want you two safe." I blinked harder when I heard the Testing Gate door open, and saw and arrow fly past us and towards Illumi. He dodged in plenty of time though, so it was a lost cause. Pokkle came into view a couple of feet to my right, a few feet in front. He got on one knee and aimed his arrow at where Illumi now stood.

"Let her go, Illumi. Your dad promised she could leave when they got her back last time, and you don't have to right to break it. _He_ doesn't have the right to break it. They used a blood seal, you can't go back on that! You need to let her go!"

"Pokkle..." I said quietly, shocked to see he was here. Though I really didn't want him around my family. "Don't get yourself killed!" Had Gon not still had his arms around me, I probably would have tried to find a way to shield him too. But I didn't want to move away from Gon at the moment, so I just had to hope Pokkle didn't get hurt.

"No matter how many of you come in, you will not be able to defeat me and Illumi. So, you need to leave the situation alone before you get killed. Lovepuppy."

...Lovepuppy? The hell?

"Pokkle, Gon, Killua; Hisoka is right. They're stronger than us. You three need to get out of here before one of you gets _**killed**_. And I am _**not**_ taking _**no**_ for an answer! Get your asses out that gate!" I yelled, pointing towards the Testing Gate without looking or hitting Gon. "_**Now!**_"

I felt Killua put his hand on top of mine, my other one now by my side anyways. He slowly lowered it to my side as well, and as he did so I realized I was shaking. I wasn't sure why. Probably because I was scared of losing any of them, or because I lost control of the situation so fast. Whatever it was, I know I'd hear about it making me weak from Illumi later. I saw Killua walk in front of me, looking straight at Illumi. "We want to talk to father."

"Very well. Come with me." Illumi turned and started walking, and the four of us followed. Hisoka picked up his barely conscience sister and followed as well, for whatever reason. When we reached Silva's room, Illumi knocked and we were told to enter. All seven of us - including Illumi, Hisoka, and his now somewhat walking sister - entered, and formed a rounding line left to right in front of Silva. Killua and Gon stood on either side of me, Pokkle on the end. Next to Killua was Illumi, then Hisoka was his sister.

"Hello there, and who are you two?" Silva asked, raising his eyebrow. After Pokkle and Gon introduced themselves, it was quiet again. Silva nodded. "And why are you all here?"

"We want to bring Ellilou with us. You promised her she could leave like Killua, so it's only fair! She doesn't deserve to be here. So please, just let her come with us!" Gon said first, and Killua nodded. "Ellilou needs to be with us, we all need each other. We're not us without each other! Especially me and Ellilou!"

Gon grabbed my hand and smiled up at me. I slowly felt myself smile back at the spikey-haired freak. He was right. I was only like myself around him. He was still my sanity, which I'd already spent too much time without. And I didn't think I could go any longer. Gon and I looked back at Silva, who seemed to be considering this all. He looked at me, Illumi, Hisoka, then Gon, Killua, and Pokkle. He nodded. "Very well. Take her with you."

"Are you going to try to take her back again?" Pokkle asked, and Silva shook his head. My rescue crew grinned, and I felt myself do the same. Illumi, Hisoka, and Hayden all left before we headed out. We quickly evacuated from the estate, having to dodge around being seen by the tour bus outside. We headed out to the airport, and Killua smiled at me.

"We're gonna go ahead and get on. Here's your ticket." Killua said, handing me said ticket. He and Gon zipped off before I could say anything, leaving me wonder why. Pokkle tapped my shoulder, and I turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Ellilou. I had to get to a certain level in Heaven's Arena to be able to talk to them. I didn't get hurt though!"

"Explain why you're wincing then, Pokkle. Left ankle?" Pokkle sighed and nodded. "You idiot-" Before I could finish my sentence, I froze due to his actions. He'd leaned forward and kissed my cheek, then bolted away. "Get back here you-!"

"Flight 315 is leaving in five minutes. Any passengers not on board need to do so now. Thank you." I looked at my ticket. 315. Damn it Pokkle.

I rushed through check out and boarded the ship, quickly finding Killua and Gon. Killua grinned, looking at me. "Your cheeks are red."

"Shut up, stupid." I shot back at him, looking out the window. He and Gon giggled as the airship started taking off, and I resisted the urge to punch both of them. After a few minutes, I realized I'd gotten on without even asking where we were going. I looked at them, glaring. "So where are we headed anyways, morons?"

"Home!" Gon grinned, and it didn't take me long at all to process what he meant. Whale Island. I grinned too, looking forward to seeing Mito's reaction when we got back. I leaned back in my chair, looking out the window. "You know, as long as that's okay with you."

"Of course it is. Gotta keep an eye on crazy Mito." I said, laughing.

"Hey, she's not crazy!"

"Why don't you call her Aunt Mito like Gon anyway, Ellilou? Don't you see her the same as him since she took care of you for five years? Ya know, instead of torturing and training you to be an assassin for eight?"

"I see her the same, and I love her more than I ever will our parents. I just... She isn't really my aunt, I'm not related to the Freecss. It seems wrong to call her 'Aunt' Mito since she isn't. It seems more disrespectful to call her that than to call her by her real name."

"Aww, but Aunt Mito would like it if you called her Aunt Mito, Cel- lilou!" I cracked up as he started calling me by my pseudonym again. "She likes the thought of being your aunt too. She loves you like she loves me, Celes-... Celeste."

I laughed a moment, looking over at Gon. "I know that, Gon. It just doesn't feel right calling her that, even though I see her as my aunt, or mother for that matter. Besides, I've called her Mito for five years. I don't want to start forcing a new name now."

"Oh really, 'Celeste?" Killua said, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't seem to have a problem changing _your_ name after eight years. Or revealing your real name to Gon after _**five**_ of him calling you Celeste."

"Shut up you," I said, leaning across to flick him in the forehead before he could stop me. He rubbed his forehead, whining. "Oh come on, it didn't hurt that bad. Come here, you big baby." I pulled him across and sat him next to me, then kissing his forehead. "Better, little one?"

"Shut up, Ellilou," He said, rolling his eyes. Though I could tell he wasn't as mad as he played off, because he was still grinning. He didn't move back over, and he was now in my seat next to the window. So, I laid back in my seat, staring at the ceiling. After a while of silence, he looked at me. The sun was starting to set outside by this point, and Gon was already fast asleep. "What are you thinking about?"

"Some stuff I remembered during my training sessions. Like when we were younger and used to do assassination missions together. And when you faked an ankle injury so I could hug you. And when there was a fire and I helped save those people..."

"I remember those times. I remember you seemed upset when you heard that girl's little brother was inside the burning building. I was afraid of you going in there, since we can't exactly be trained to not burn when caught on fire... But, you made it out okay. And you saved all of those people. You'd carved our way out of the caved-in tunnel just before that, too. And you'd given me your jacket the night I faked the ankle injury, right?"

I nodded smiling. "That's right. And the next day we were trained together." As I continued talking of memories, Killua's responses got shorter and sleepier. After a little while, I felt something hit my shoulder. I looked to see Killua's head resting there. and he was smiling. I smiled and gently rested my head against his, protectively putting one arm around him as I closed my eyes.

When we woke up in the morning, we had to board a boat. We'd only have about three hours from where we were to get to Whale Island, so there was no use in going back to sleep. We were sitting on the railing of the boat, which was the last place I wanted to be. Gon guaranteed the waves to be calm though, so I'd gotten on with them. I was to Gon's left, Killua to his right. I looked at both of them as the ship calmly rocked just a bit. "Here on Whale Island, I need to be called Celeste. I don't want Aunt Mito thinking of me as a liar."

"Then how do we explain how close you two look alike and how close you two are?" Gon asked, looking at me.

"Simple. I had a brother who stayed with a family friend, and I met him at the Exam. I'd forgotten about him because we left him there when he was a year old, and I had only been two. We hadn't talked about him since."

"But how likely is it for you to meet your _brother_ at the Exam? There are too many people." Gon nodded, and I sighed at their stupidity.

"Killua, we're still brother and sister. And we met at the Exam. Stupid."

"Oh... Right." When we docked, we headed straight to Mito's house. After the agonizing long walk, I wanted to collapse of boredom.

"Aunt Mito!" Gon called, waving at the lady out at the clothes line. She turned to look at us, and her face lit up. Gon was meters in front of me, and Killua meters behind. They ran to meet each other, while I slowed down to be next to Killua. I heard running footsteps, and looked forward to see Mito. She hugged me tight, and I smiled as I hugged the lady back.

"I'm so glad you two made it home safe, Celeste."

"I told you I would protect Gon, didn't I? I couldn't protect Gon if I was dead, so that was my way of promising we'd both make it home safe." I said, smiling up at her as she pulled away. She looked at Killua. "Who's this?"

"W-Well..." I smiled, putting my arm around Killua. "This is my brother Killua. I forgot about him, because when he was a year old we left him with a family friend and didn't talk about him afterwards. He's just a year younger than me, so I was only two. I wish I'd remembered him though... We met him at the Exam though, and since we looked so alike, I knew it was him."

Mito smiled, seeming very excited for me to have found my brother. "That's great! Well, lets all head inside then."

I laughed to myself as Mito ranted about how we should have let her know we were coming home, because she had nothing prepared. "Anything will be fine."

"I can't do that, your friend and her brother is here!"

"Mito, he's my _brother_. He'll eat anything!" I looked at him, and heard him something about not eating _anything_, that he wasn't _Milluki_.

Then she started ranting about how Gon and I hadn't called since we told her we passed the Exam. Gon ignored it and asked if we should help, but she told him to sit down. Then we were ordered to take baths. "I am _**not**_ taking a bath with them!"

"Why not, you take baths with Gon all the time."

I was silent for a second, looking myself up and down. "I'm a girl, Mito! We've been gone six months, and I realized taking a bath by _myself_ was much more comfortable!"

"One!" The three of us bolted to the bathroom to take our bath. I ignored them and took mine quickly, getting out and drying off way before them.

"_Ohhh, Mito. You are __**so**__ going to hear about this later!" _I thought as I got dressed. I bolted out of the bathroom and put my dirty clothes in the laundry basket. I went to the kitchen to see Mito struggling to reach her ingredients as she stirred something, so I quickly started helping her. It was like falling back into place, helping Mito cook again. Yep. This was home.

* * *

**I really hoped that helped clear the confusion and anger and stuff! And I also hope this chapter makes some sense. xD Alright, bye everyone! See you in the next chapter!**


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